Two years ago in these pages, I wrote about the urgent need for a national pathway for pregnant women and mothers facing children’s social care involvement.
The evidence was already clear: women’s needs during pregnancy and early motherhood are acute, but too often overlooked. The consequences include poor maternal outcomes, increasing rates of care proceedings, and avoidable separations of mothers and babies – and they are devastating for families and costly for the state.
The launch of the Birth Companions Institute last month marked the next step in tackling these challenges. It builds on 30 years of work by the Birth Companions charity, supporting pregnant women, mothers and their babies experiencing severe disadvantage, and driving improvements in the systems that shape their lives.
Our focus is on the first 1,001 days, from conception to age two. This is a critical period for development and wellbeing, yet women and babies experiencing poverty, violence, poor housing, insecure immigration status or criminal justice involvement still face systemic barriers to getting the care and support they need.
We want to work with councils to change this picture. We know local government plays a central role in joining up services, commissioning early intervention and trauma-informed provision, and building socially connected communities where families can thrive.
We also know there are already plenty of examples of good practice in councils, but these need to become the norm.
The institute’s first projects include: co-designing a National Care Pathway for women facing children’s social care involvement; improving safety for refugee and undocumented mothers and babies; and reshaping how the criminal justice system responds to pregnancy and early motherhood.
We want councillors, officers and leaders to be part of this work. With your support, we can continue to build the evidence base, centre the voices of women who are least-often heard, and develop the policies and practices that will deliver better outcomes for families in the first 1,001 days and beyond.
- Find out more about the Birth Companions Institute.