The Process of Becoming a Mother in French Prison Nurseries: A Qualitative Study

Many variables can influence the process of motherhood, including environmental precarity and personal adversity. One about which little is known is the impact of incarceration on women during or after pregnancy. In France, pregnant women or those with children up to 18 months old can be incarcerated with their child in specific units called nurseries. We sought to explore incarcerated women’s experience of motherhood in prison environments and its potential consequences on the construction of their identity as mothers. We conducted semi-structured interviews to collect the experience of the process of motherhood among 25 mothers and 5 pregnant women in 13 different prison nurseries in France and used interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the data. Four different themes emerged: prison conflates their status as inmates and as mothers; it limits their freedom as mothers; it disrupts their family structure; and motherhood may help distinguish them from other inmates. Incarceration of pregnant women or young mothers in prison nurseries might disrupt the process involved in becoming mothers, causing their identities as prisoners to englobe their identities as mothers and resulting in inappropriate parenting support by prison staff. A professional specialized in peripartum issues should help each woman disentangle her identity as inmate and mother and enable her placement at the facility best adapted to her individual needs as a mother. In any case, if prison must continue to be possible, it must always be a last alternative for women with young children.