The vast majority of children in care proceedings in England and Wales are currently infants under the age of one. More than half are newborn babies less than two weeks old.  

Availability of administrative data about babies and children known to children’s social care has given us more insight into the scale of the problem in recent years. However, evidence about the women with children’s social care involvement during pregnancy and the postnatal period remains limited.
In this webinar, Kaat De Backer will share research findings from the MUMS@RISC study. Using a decade of UK national maternal death surveillance data, the study focused on women with children’s social care involvement during pregnancy and the year after birth.

MUMS@RISC aimed to explore maternal characteristics, outcomes and experiences of women in contact with children’s social care during the perinatal period. Particularly mothers facing separation from their infant.

About the facilitator

Kaat De Backer is a midwife, and worked as a specialist perinatal mental health midwife and matron of a mother and baby unit, in different settings in the East of England, before starting her research career. She recently obtained her PhD, funded by an NIHR doctoral research fellowship. 
Her research draws on the clinical experiences and expertise she built as a specialist midwife, in particular when working with families with complex mental health needs and complex safeguarding. Her PhD is a mixed methods study, aiming to a understand the characteristics, outcomes and experiences of care among women with children’s social care involvement during pregnancy and early motherhood.

Learning Outcomes

• As a result of attending this webinar, participants will be able to:
  Learn about findings from the Maternity experiences and perinatal outcomes of mothers separated from their babies due to social care proceedings.
• Consider how this learning can be applied to improve support and services for mothers during pregnancy, where they are facing separation or who are at risk of recurrent care.