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Available open access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.
A ground-breaking international collection, Born into Care brings together leading scholars, practitioners, advocates and mothers with lived experience to confront the hidden and deeply controversial practice of infant removal at birth.
The first book of its kind, it delivers a powerful critique of the legal, ethical and political systems that perpetuate a practice which disproportionately impacts marginalised families. Topics covered in the book include decision-making at birth, human rights and access to justice, and the intersecting inequities of class, gender, racism and ableism.
Through rigorous analysis and diverse perspectives, the collection challenges dominant child protection narratives and lays the groundwork for systemic transformation.
Karen Broadhurst OBE is Distinguished Professor of Social Work at Lancaster University. She is a leading figure in family justice research, including child protection at birth.
Emily Keddell is Professor of Social Work at the University of Otago (Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka).
Linda Cusworth is Senior Research Fellow at Lancaster University and a specialist in family justice research including children in care.
Lucy Griffiths is Professor of Paediatric Epidemiology at Swansea University and a specialist in child health and wellbeing, with her work covering infants born into care.
Claire Mason is Research Fellow at Lancaster University and leading a pioneer of systems change regarding child protection in pregnancy and at birth.
Introduction: rethinking the removal of infants at birth - Karen Broadhurst, Emily Keddell, Linda Cusworth, Lucy Griffiths, and Claire Mason
Part 1: Infant removals at birth: assessment and decision-making
1. The removal of infants at birth in the US: anticipating harm in newborn baby cases - Vivek Sankaran and James 'Tre' Fitts
2. Newborn babies, family preservation, and the role of the Guardian ad Litem: cradled by the system or harmed in haste? - Karen Broadhurst and Linda Cusworth
3. Even- handed treatment? Voluntary and compulsory routes into care for infants in Wales - Laura Cowley and Lucy Griffiths
4. Newborn removals in Norway: contested decisions in a changing policy landscape - Barbara Ruiken and Ida Benedicte Juhasz
Part 2: Infant removals at birth: justice, representation, and rights
5. Parents in recurrent care proceedings: gender bias, institutional stigma, and cumulative trauma - Claire Mason, Georgia Philip, Harriet Ward, and Bachar Alrouh
6. Care proceedings in the immediate postpartum period as systemic gender- based injustice - Karen Broadhurst and Stephanie Taplin
7. Maternal rights and infant separation in prisons - Laura Abbott, Natalie Avlonitis, Kirsty Kitchen, Katherine Miller Brunton, and Simone Phipps
8. A right to family life for parents with learning difficulties and disabilities - Katy Burch and Beth Tarleton
Part 3: Disproportionate infant removals in Indigenous communities and strategies of resistance
9. Inequality in perinatal child protection involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in Australia: challenges and opportunities - Jacynta Krakouer and Melissa O’Donnell
10. Under surveillance in pregnancy and at birth in British Columbia: Indigenous women speak out - Susan Burke, Katelynn Buchner, and Tammy Pearson
11. Decolonisation and the reduction of entries to care for babies in Aotearoa New Zealand: the ongoing challenge - Kerri Cleaver and Emily Keddell
12. Conclusion: transforming practices of infant removal at birth – what needs to change? - Karen Broadhurst, Emily Keddell, Linda Cusworth, Lucy Griffiths, and Claire Mason