Horror birth for women in jails

We tell ourselves we’re not animals. But anyone who’s been through childbirth, splitting into two pieces while bellowing like a wounded bison, knows we haven’t come far.

Her Majesty’s Prison Service has stopped pretending. A study found that women in three English jails were left to give birth alone in their cells, no midwife, and for one birth the child was not only premature but breech as well. Women and children without medical care are far more likely to die in childbirth. Women in our jails are already more likely to be vulnerable, selfharming, and addicted. Extra trauma won’t rehabilitate them. Cutbacks have caused all kinds of problems, but last time I checked the Tories were still claiming they had humanity. Perhaps they could start showing it, and make sure every woman – prisoner or not – has medical care for the most dangerous thing most of us will ever do.