Family Solicitors

A judge ruled that a newborn baby could be removed at birth from its mother, who has mental health issues, is addicted to drugs and has a low IQ.

Mrs Justice Parker agreed with a local council that the step was necessary to protect the child. However, the arrangement was made before the child was born and without the mother’s knowledge, to prevent her from becoming aggressive.

Doctors treating the woman said she had become increasingly aggressive during her pregnancy – and had also stopped taking medication which prevented her from suffering episodes of paranoia and psychosis.

Health experts assessing the woman’s condition agreed that telling her that her baby would be removed at birth would only make her condition worse.

Mrs Justice Parker agreed that removing the child from its mother at birth was the only way in which the child’s interests could be protected. She ruled that police and social workers could if necessary use reasonable force the remove the child from the mother after delivery – and without the mother even being allowed to hold her child first.

The ruling was made in a secret hearing at the Family Division of the High Court in September, a few days before the baby was due to be delivered.

Details have now been released in the wake of another recent case in which an Italian woman suffering from mental health issues was forced to undergo a Caesarean section, before her baby was removed and taken into Local Authority care.

In the latest case, the Local Authority applied to take the child into care before the birth – and Mrs Justice Parker agreed that this would be necessary as the child was in “grave danger” from its own mother, who has had two previous children taken into care and caused physical injury to one of these when the child was just three weeks old.

The identities of the mother and her children as well as the other parties involved have been kept anonymous to protect the family’s identity.

However, Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming is currently proposing that family courts should become more open and transparent.

Mr Hemming called the secret court hearing and subsequent ruling “one sided”:

“The woman’s voice is never heard,” he said. “This raises a lot of questions: this is an obviously one-sided hearing – the state comes along and says we’re going to do this.”

Mrs Justice Parker acknowledged that removing the child at birth from its mother was a drastic action – and added that that the first few moments of life are “particularly precious and can never be recovered”.

However she added that the child’s mother would be able to challenge the ruling at a later Court of Protection hearing.

“I understand and acknowledge what a drastic step this is – how deeply distressing this will be to this mother, as it would indeed be to any mother newly delivered of a child; and I am in no doubt she will understand what is happening to her in these circumstances,” she said.

“But I am persuaded – and indeed now convinced – that there is sadly no other way of safeguarding the interests of this child than by making an anticipatory declaration, as I am asked, in order that intervention can take place at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Duncan Lewis Family and Childcare Solicitors

Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of family and children’s solicitors and can advise on issues such as children taken into Local Authority care, as well as child contact and residence and child abuse.

For expert family law advice, contact Duncan Lewis Family and Childcare Solicitors on 020 7923 4020.