Keep us busy with babies and we’ve no time for crime | Torsten Bell

Offending rates among women and men plunge as soon as they’ve got a child on the way

Unless you’re in a mafia clan, we all want to see crime come down. But different people approach that in different ways. Economists like to think of criminals as getting out their calculators to see if crime pays, so they focus on the impact of deterrence: increasing the severity of punishment or the likelihood of being caught.

Unfortunately, deterrence doesn’t do a great job because criminals don’t care enough about the future to pay much attention to jail terms. And of course everyone knows that reducing crime goes beyond more police or prisons – it’s about people’s roles in society.

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The Guardian view on prisons and mothers: an injustice | Editorial

The shameful treatment of pregnant inmates and of the children of jailed women must be addressed. No babies should be born behind bars

Shock and outrage was the widespread reaction to the death of a newborn baby girl at Bronzefield prison in Surrey in September, after her mother (neither have been named) gave birth alone in her cell at night. How could a such a thing have happened in the UK in 2019? Eleven inquiries were launched. A justice minister, Lord Keen, declared the incident “distressing” and “rare”.

So it was extraordinarily disturbing to learn, through a Guardian investigation, that far from being an isolated incident, this baby’s death followed the birth of another child in a cell at the same, privately-run prison earlier this year, and a series of other incidents in which women who went into labour were transferred to hospital late. Bronzefield is the largest women’s prison in Europe, but the questions raised relate to other institutions too.

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Pushed to the limit: six birth stories from around the world

From pop songs to warm pools, Candice Pires hears six very different accounts of women’s experience in labour

My mum fainted with excitement the day I gave birth. I came home from hospital to find her and my dad waiting outside our flat and, as I got out of the car and they embraced me, she collapsed into our group hug. That’s the story most of my friends and family know about my birth experience. It’s sweet, it’s censored, it deflects from the stitches, the rollercoaster emotions, the stuff that’s harder for everyone to say or to hear. Our birth stories get lost when our newborns are put into our arms. There’s no time to look back as we hurtle headfirst into caregiving. But birth is a miracle, right? Another person grows inside you and then gets out of your body and lives its own life. It is objectively, painfully, hilariously awe-inspiring. As traumatic as it is hopeful. And interesting, too. So why don’t we make more room to talk about it? And why is discussion of the topic generally confined to women who are about to give birth or have recently done so? As part of an ongoing project, I spoke to women around the world to hear different stories that were also in many ways universal. Here are six of them…

She was born to Tears Dry on Their Own by Amy Winehouse

The hospital gave us his hand and footprints

I didn’t want my child taken from me again so we left

I focus on my time at the birth centre as it’s such a positive memory

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Revealed: concerns over string of incidents at UK prison where baby died

At least four prisoners at HMP Bronzefield have given birth in potentially unsafe circumstances since 2017

• Pregnant in prison: ‘I could feel the blood but didn’t put the light on to see’

The death of a newborn baby girl in a cell at HMP Bronzefield in September came after a string of concerning incidents involving pregnant women at the prison in the past two years, the Guardian has learned.

On at least four occasions in this period, women held at the privately run Surrey prison have given birth in distressing and potentially unsafe circumstances, including one woman who gave birth in her cell and another who was left in labour at night-time supported only by another pregnant prisoner.

Related: Pregnant in prison: 'I could feel the blood but didn’t put the light on to see'

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Pregnant in prison: 'I could feel the blood but didn’t put the light on to see'

Polly cried for help when she began bleeding heavily in her cell, but no one answered

• HMP Bronzefield: baby death casts light on string of incidents

Polly was alone in her cell at night when she started bleeding heavily. Doubled over in pain, she rang her bell over and over again, but nobody answered her cries for help. She was four months’ pregnant and terrified she would lose her baby while locked in a cell.

“I tried to sit it out in my cell, all night nearly,” she says. “I got no sleep at all, the pain was awful and I knew without looking the bleeding was worse, I could feel it but I didn’t put the light on to see. I was terrified, I thought: ‘I’m going to lose this baby here in this bloody cell.’

Related: HMP Bronzefield baby death casts light on string of incidents

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Bare-faced cheek about nude over 50s | Brief letters

Nude scenes | Food banks | Induced labour | Theft | Pronunciation

I’m guessing Stuart Heritage is under 50 to write such a cringe-worthy piece about restricting nude scenes to the over-50s (Shortcuts, G2, 21 November). He even has the bare-faced cheek (get it?) to suggest “If only the middle-aged could do nude scenes, you could absolutely guarantee that those scenes would be vital to the script.” Yes, young actors need to be protected from the pressure to go naked, but really!
Jane Poyner
Bath

• Adrian Chiles is right – it’s best to ask what is needed by food banks (G2, 21 November). Also, don’t just think food but remember toiletries, toilet paper, tissues, sanitary towels, disposable nappies, cleaning products and, yes, seasonal treats. And while you’re at it, write to relevant ministers and your MP to remind them of this national scandal.
Val Harrison
Birmingham

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Induction recommended for women still pregnant at 41 weeks

Swedish study shows that induction of labour at or beyond term gestation is safer for babies

Inducing birth for women whose pregnancy lasts to 41 weeks could reduce the death toll from stillbirths, say experts, following publication of the results of an important trial in which six babies died after spending longer in the womb.

The results of the trial in Sweden, revealed last month in the Guardian, may change practice around the world. They confirm what experience and smaller studies have suggested – that there is a small increased risk of stillbirth for babies after 41 weeks’ gestation. The trial was stopped early after five babies of women who were more than 41 weeks’ pregnant were stillborn and one died shortly after birth.

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