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How does it feel to have your child removed when you’ve already faced a huge amount of trauma in your life?

A new article, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, draws on women’s accounts and experiences of child removal and helps to build an understanding of how stigma plays a part in those experiences.

Northumbria University PhD student Joanne McGrath, who is co-funded by the NIHR ARC NENC and the NIHR School for Public Health Research, worked with women in the North East of England with multiple disadvantage, including homelessness, substance use and poor mental health, who are often subject to stigma in society. The article highlights how some of the women had experienced the removal of their children through the family courts.

Losing custody of a child or children is a highly traumatic event, which is more frequently experienced in economically disadvantaged areas. However, mothers who have had children removed rarely receive support afterwards, which deepens the adversity that they experience, and further stigmatising interactions with services can became a gateway to further adversities.

The work highlights that the current system is flawed, and that women with complex histories are often faced with a system that doesn’t take their individual circumstances into account.

It recommends that effective family court processes and policies must be informed by an awareness of the role of stigma in women’s pathways to multiple exclusions and the subsequent consequences for their parenting opportunities, and that of their children.

Read the full article

Published 19 June 2023 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.