Motherhood in Carceral Space: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Maternity in Prisons and Immigration Removal Centres in England (360G-Wellcome-217839_Z_19_Z)

This project seeks to shed light on experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity in carceral space in England – namely, within the women’s prison estate and the immigration removal estate. The extent, albeit limited, scholarship surrounding this area has focused almost exclusively on maternal incarceration and detention as it relates to child separation. This project would examine how motherhood itself – spanning pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity – is experienced and endured within these two types of custodial institutions. Empirically grounded, this project will consist of fieldwork in two women’s prisons, and two immigration removal centres. It will investigate how perinatal healthcare is administered within these spaces, and how custody is experienced and endured by pregnant and maternal subjects. Ethnographically oriented, it seeks to lend visibility and centrality to the women confined within these low-visibility spaces. Ultimately, this project seeks to develop answers to the following questions: how is perinatal healthcare experienced by women within the women’s prison estate and the immigration removal estate in England? What are the conceptual and practical implications for our understanding of dignity, agency, autonomy, and privacy? How do the experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and maternity further our understanding of the gendered harms of custodial space?