Negotiating Pregnancy, New Motherhood and Imprisonment
ISBN: 978-1-78973-344-0, eISBN: 978-1-78973-343-3
Publication date: 16 September 2020
Abstract
Around 7% of the female prison population are pregnant (Albertson, O'Keeffe, Lessing-Turner, Burke & Renfrew, 2014; Kennedy, Marshall, Parkinson, Delap, & Abbott, 2016; Prison Reform Trust, 2019). However, although recent years have witnessed growing academic interest in relation to mothering and imprisonment, limited attention has been paid to exploring the experiences of pregnancy for women serving a custodial sentence. Combining health and criminological research, this chapter offers a unique perspective of women's accounts of pregnancy and imprisonment, highlighting the specific challenges faced by pregnant women in negotiating the prison environment, whilst also illustrating the adaptive strategies adopted to cope with pregnancy and new motherhood in the context of imprisonment.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the women who participated in the research. They would also like to acknowledge the funders for the research from which this chapter has drawn: Study 2: Economic and Social Research Council (United Kingdom) (ES/I902597/1).
Citation
Abbott, L. and Lockwood, K. (2020), "Negotiating Pregnancy, New Motherhood and Imprisonment", Lockwood, K. (Ed.) Mothering from the Inside, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 49-66. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-343-320201006
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020 Laura Abbott and Kelly Lockwood. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited