Princess Kate, 43, travelled to HMP Styal in Cheshire to meet inmates from the women’s prison using the services provided by the Mother and Baby Unit unit, run by Action for Children.
Her early years work also includes the launch in 2021 of the Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which aims to raise awareness of the importance of early childhood, and her Shaping Us campaign, to help increase public understanding of the importance of the first five years of a child's life.
The prison houses around 480 inmates and has a Mother and Baby Unit for prisoners with babies up to 18 months, which is run by the Action for Children charity.
Pregnant women and mothers live in a separate area of the building and are supported to care for their babies by trained prison staff and early years experts, who even ensure that babies are exposed to regular experiences such as going on a walk, shopping and travelling on a bus.
The unit aims to establish and maintain a strong bond between mother and child, in line with evidence that a key psychological process of attachment takes place between babies and their primary caregiver in the initial months of life, which influences later development.
