Premature birth ‘almost twice as likely’ in England’s prisons than outside

Styal women’s prison in Cheshire, where Louise Powell underwent a stillbirth in a cell toilet in 2020. Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/Corbis/Getty Images

Female prisoners are almost twice as likely to give birth prematurely as women in the general population, leaving them and their babies at risk, new research reveals.

More than one in 10 (11%) women who have a child while behind bars do so before 37 weeks of their pregnancy, compared with 6.5% of mothers in the community, the Nuffield Trust found.