Supporting Families to Prevent Unnecessary Infant Separation
A recent article from The Guardian has brought to light the alarming rise in mothers having their babies taken away within days of birth in England. The article shares the voices of women experiencing profound distress as they face separation from their newborns, often due to concerns around maternal mental health, domestic abuse, or perceived parental capacity issues. This crisis underlines the critical need for early intervention and specialist support to ensure that more families can stay together safely.
Read the article here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jan/25/i-cant-sleep-im-terrified-the-rise-in-mothers-having-their-babies-taken-away-within-days-of-giving-birth-in-england)
DorPIP has long championed a preventative approach to supporting families, advocating for relationship-based interventions that strengthen early bonding and mental health. In particular, DorPIP’s Three-Point Plan for Dorset, and specifically Point 2: Improving the Early Help and Maternity Offer, directly addresses the concerns raised in the Guardian’s article.
Why Early Intervention Matters
The separation of a newborn from their mother can have profound, lifelong consequences for both the child and the parent. Research consistently shows that secure early attachment is a key factor in emotional, social, and cognitive development. When intervention is delayed until a crisis point, it often leads to family breakdown, costly care placements, and long-term negative outcomes.
DorPIP’s second strategic point—‘Transforming Early Help and the Maternity Offer’—emphasizes embedding specialist perinatal mental health and infant mental health support into existing services. This means:
Better Identification of Families at Risk: Early screening for parental mental health challenges and social vulnerabilities in pregnancy and postnatally.
Embedding Specialist Relationship-Based Support in Maternity Services: This includes ensuring all families have access to infant mental health practitioners and parent-infant therapy to help build secure early bonds.
Training and Equipping Maternity and Early Help Professionals: Midwives, health visitors, and social workers should have enhanced training in infant mental health to offer compassionate, evidence-based early intervention.
Community-Based Support for Vulnerable Parents: Ensuring parents are not left to struggle alone, with accessible perinatal peer support and parenting programs.
The Consequences of Inaction
Without investment in these early interventions, families will continue to experience preventable trauma. The Guardian’s report highlights the devastating emotional and financial cost of late-stage interventions, such as court-mandated removals and emergency child protection measures. These approaches are not only distressing for families but also place immense pressure on local authorities and the care system.
Instead, a preventative model—where support is offered from pregnancy and continued through the critical first 1001 days of a child’s life—can significantly reduce the need for removals. It ensures that families receive the help they need before reaching crisis point.
A Call to Action for Dorset
DorPIP is calling on local commissioners, decision-makers, and health leaders in Dorset to implement the changes outlined in our Three-Point Plan. By embedding specialist parent-infant support in early help and maternity services, we can create a system where more families are supported to stay together safely.
We urge local authorities to prioritize infant mental health and invest in relationship-based interventions that strengthen families, reduce trauma, and give every baby the best possible start in life.
To learn more about DorPIP’s work and how we are advocating for change, visit DorPIP’s Three-Point Plan.