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Studies of the first year of infant psychomotor development in cases of maternal postpartum depression are lacking. The mother and baby unit (MBU) is a healthcare system available to infants and their mothers during the postpartum period in a psychiatric hospital, which provides support and preserves the parent's role in the child's daily care. The aim of the paper is to describe the developmental profile of babies of mothers with severe postpartum depression treated in an MBU through the developmental quotients. Using the Brunet-Lézine scale, we studied six-month-old infants whose mothers were hospitalized. The study population consisted of 15 infants. The mean global developmental quotient score was 96.7. A developmental quotient lower than 80 was not observed for any of the children. We found no global psychomotor developmental delays. Despite this, the posture subscore was the area in which we observed the most difficulties. It is possible that the tonic dialogue between the mother and infant is disrupted by maternal depression.

As becoming a mother becomes increasingly embedded in the marketplace, this paper explores how a group of low-income pregnant and newly parenting young mothers engaged with expansive markets for the new mother and baby.

This paper draws on an extended period of fieldwork carried out at a Pupil Referral Unit and a Mother and Baby Unit in the city of Bristol, UK. The research took a staged and incremental approach, incorporating aspects of participant observation, activity-based focus groups and a photo elicitation exercise.

This paper highlights the anxiety the young women experienced around their ability (or lack thereof) to participate in practices of childrearing consumption and details how the young women strived to provide well for their children despite their limited incomes, developing a sophisticated knowledge of markets and adopting a range of budgeting and smart shopping strategies to ensure they could acquire the “stuff” their children “needed”.

Contrary to popular discourse, the young women emerge as careful and pragmatic consumers who plan and manage their finances carefully, and the paper acknowledges skills that are often missing from accounts of young mothers and working-class people more broadly.

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.

Motherhood and mothering are conceived in relation to classed hierarchies through which those living in poverty become characterized by “otherhood” and “othering.” This positioning leaves them vulnerable to overt and indirect forms of criticism, surveillance, and policing from family, friends, professionals, and strangers; against a background of demonization of particular types of mothers and mothering practices in the wider mediascape. This chapter draws on 3 studies, involving 28 participants, which explored their journeys into the space of parenthood and their everyday experiences. The participants all resided in low-income locales. Many participants had resided in homeless hostels and mother and baby units before being placed in local authority housing or low-grade rented accommodation. The studies all employed forms of visual ethnography, including photoelicitation, timelines, emotion stickers, collage, and sandboxing. Participants discussed different forms of surveillance where other people were characterized as “watching what I’m doing, watching how I’m doing it.” These forms of watching ranged from the structured policing encountered in mother-and-baby units to more informal comments from passers-by or passengers on a bus journey; and an awareness of how mothers in state housing are depicted in the media. These interactions were sometimes met with resistance. At other times, they were simply another incident that participants negotiated in a growing tapestry of disrespect and devaluation. This chapter argues that these discourses demonize and alienate mothers living on the margins, making already difficult journeys a constant struggle in the moral maze of contemporary motherhood and its accompanying conceptualizations of “otherhood.”

There is limited research on the mental health of pregnant women in prison in England, mother and baby unit (MBU) applications and associated factors. Eighty-five pregnant women were interviewed in eight different prisons in England, UK. Schedules for the Clinical Assessment of Neuropsychiatry (SCAN) and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) were used to assess mental health; Severity of Dependence Questionnaire (SOD-Q) for drug misuse; Alcohol Use Identification Test (AUDIT) for hazardous drinking and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-II) to identify personality disorder. About 51% of participants had depression and 57% had anxiety. Those with prior social services involvement, diagnosis of personality disorder or history of suicidality were less likely to be admitted to MBUs. The high levels of depression and anxiety can have negative impacts on both the mother and her unborn child. Factors which influence MBU admission suggest those who might benefit most from MBU placement are least likely to be admitted. Other countries offer feasible alternatives to imprisonment for pregnant women and mothers which could be implemented in England.

In recent years, academics, policymakers and activists in a number of countries have become increasingly concerned with the needs and experiences of imprisoned mothers and their children. With a few exceptions, this research has tended to focus on single jurisdictions or on limited jurisdictional comparisons. Several common themes emerge when considering international perspectives on mothering and imprisonment, but political, social, cultural, economic and penological factors mean that these issues can play out differently in different settings. Thus, in the United Kingdom and the United States, much of the debate is around keeping mothers and babies together, whereas in many other countries the focus is on the desirability of developing realistic and practical alternatives to children growing up in the prison with their mother. International organisations such as the UNCRC have considered the particular needs of children imprisoned with their mothers and also the challenges of ‘mothering from the inside’. That said, this research has tended to focus on narrow biological and gestational definitions of motherhood which may not reflect contemporary realities. With this in mind, this chapter will outline and explore international perspectives on mothering and imprisonment, identifying key issues of commonality and difference and situating these perspectives within emerging research on imprisonment, diversity and mothering.

This purpose of this paper is to report on a study of the possible role of social marketing in encouraging breastfeeding amongst teenage mothers. UK teenage mothers are particularly prone to low levels of breastfeeding and there has been a lack of response to traditional health education approaches. The purpose of this paper is to report on an in‐depth, qualitative exploration into the use of social marketing to address this problem.

Qualitative interviews were conducted in 2009 with 58 pregnant teenagers, young mothers and their influencers to explore feeding decisions and examine social marketing options. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) emerged as the most appropriate framework to explain the major influences on breastfeeding. This was used to structure a solution that highlighted three strategic priorities for social marketing based on the TPB's three components: changing attitudes, altering social norms and increasing confidence.

Health benefits of breastfeeding were not disputed, but neither were they found to be a strong motivator for this age group. Personal benefits oriented to the mother were explored, some of which seem more promising in maintaining breastfeeding and the quality of ante‐ and postnatal service was critical. Finally, the “public” image of breastfeeding was often a negative, with the perceived lack of social acceptance of breastfeeding in public places acting as a barrier to continued practice.

This paper offers insights into the experiences of this group of young mothers and the findings were shared with the health trust funding the research, to help in a clinical pathway redesign. A separate social marketing‐based solution to counter this is proposed, with the long‐term aim to make breastfeeding the default societal norm.

Imprisoned mothers are at increased risk for poor psychological health and psychological distress when separated from their children, so staff need to be highly skilled to support the women. However, there is a paucity of research focusing on staff experiences around sensitive issues such as mother–child separation. This study aims to understand the challenges faced by staff and how these might be addressed.

This qualitative interview study explored the views and experiences of 24 prison-based staff in England working with female prisoners separated from their infants.

Staff emphasised the challenges of working with separated mothers, specifically the emotional impact of this work, and the impact of the wider criminal justice system on their sense of agency.

A focus on the experience of separation highlights the broader problem of incarcerating women in general. Reducing the number of mother–child separations would mitigate the impact on both women and staff.