Woman pregnant in Cheshire prison was terrified of giving birth in a cell

The prison, just outside Wilmslow, is one of only six in the country to have a mother and baby unit which houses those who have children under 18 months old. It means the child can stay with them inside the prison walls.

But for Sue, the end of her pregnancy was wracked with fear, reports the Manchester Evening News. "I think the thought of going into labour on the wing terrified me" she said. "Just being in that cell, what a thing to have to say my child when she's grown up, 'oh yeah you were born in a cell.' She wasn't, she was born in a hospital."

Sue, who was sent to Styal in 2002, described her ordeal as part of HMP Styal: Women Behind Bars, a documentary on the jail which aired on Channel 5 last week. During the programme, the jail was described as 'looking like Butlins' or a 'housing estate' with 'lots of little village greens' – but which has a 'huge barbed wire fence around it'.

There are communal house units where women 'live like a family' kitchen, living room and dorms. Doors are left open in day for people to go to and from work in the prison.

However women who have committed the worst of crimes and therefore, require stricter supervision are normally held on the traditional part of the prison called Waite Wing. This was often party for their own protection the show heard as child killers were seen as the 'lowest of the low' in the 'prisoner code.'

According to the Channel Five programme, among those to have been housed at Styal, where prisoners aren't categorised and low-level offenders can be housed alongside killers and rapists, are Baby P's mum Tracey Connolly, jailed for a minimum of five years in 2009 for causing or allowing the death of her 17-month old son and reportedly released earlier this year.

Also said to be being currently housed at Styal is Savannah Brockhill, 28, jailed for life in December last year after being convicted of beating to death her partner's one-year-old daughter, Star Hobson.

"There are people in there who can't see their children, who have lost their children because of things that have happened," Sue said. "And then we're mixing with women who've killed children, or raped children, it's not good. Especially with women because they are so protective as mums and stuff. I've seen women on the wing being assaulted."

However, Sue said the Mother and Baby unit, which according to Styal's website is run by the charity Action Children, was a far cry from the conditions elsewhere in the jail.

"I eventually went on to the mother and baby unit, it's quite a relaxed atmosphere, there's all sterilisers stuff in the kitchen then you've got your wash room" she said. "It's not a cell door, it's a wooden door with a window in it. There's settees with big scatter cushions and a big TV. Prams are provided so you can walk them round the avenues when you have had your child."

"There do have nannies who take the children for walks outside the prison gates so they can get used to sounds, as they don't hear things like dogs barking and stuff. They try and normalise it for the babies."

Former Styal prison officer Holly Dalglish said: "Really weird juxtaposition isn't it? The uniqueness of Styal is that you can have a child killer located on a unit, not far away from a mother and baby unit. I think the concept of a mother and baby unit would to most people seem really bizarre. And on the surface it is bizarre to have a child in prison.

"However the nature of women is that they get pregnant and have children and just because you're pregnant or have children does not mean you haven't got an addiction problem or you haven't committed a crime."

"I think it would probably affect the babies more if they were separated from their mothers for the first 18 months of their lives" Vanessa Frake, former governor HMP Wormwood Scrubs said.

Sue also said that having their child with them gave the mums extra motivation to be on their best behaviour. "If you got into trouble, they threatened to take your telly off you, on the wing, and to go onto basic (the lowest level of prison privileges)," she said.

"But if you're pregnant you're getting threatened with them taking the baby off you. If you've got a place on mother and baby unit, and you put a foot out of place, the baby's going."

Following a review last year the Prison Service's policy on pregnant women and new mums in prison was updated and backed by half a million pounds in new funding saw a number of changes being implemented including pregnant women in their third trimester now receiving additional welfare observations.

Sue said her problems began when she became addicted to heroin and crack cocaine. "Once crack came into my life when I was 26, I could never find the strength to put it down and leave it alone. I would always go back to it" she said.

And she was one of two former Styal prisoners featured in the show to highlight the scale of the issue with drugs in the prison during their time as inmates.

Fellow ex-Styal prisoner 'Brenda' said she had never touched drugs before starting her life sentence for murder. "I went in prison when I was 17, and because I was naïve to the situation I didn't know what was going on. Six months in I started taking heroin.