Sentencing Review 2025: The specific needs and issues associated with pregnancy and early motherhood

Birth Companions' submission to the Government's 2024-2025 Sentencing Review call for evidence focuses on the sentencing of pregnant women and mothers of infants.

Our key priority in responding to the call for evidence is to foreground the specific risks and concerns relating to women’s contact with the CJS in the 1001 days from conception to their child’s second birthday, in order to ensure these women are kept out of prison wherever possible.

While our submission focuses on needs specific to pregnancy and early motherhood, we support wider submissions on the sentencing of women as a whole, as set out by our partners in the National Women’s Justice Coalition, Women in Prison, the Centre for Women’s Justice and others. We support calls from others on the needs of racialised communities and those whose experience of gender-based violence lead to their criminalisation.