When You Know – Childbirth in the Asylum System
This film explores themes of fear, access and isolation. Developed and released in 2025 as part of Best for Baby Too Improvement Collaborative in Liverpool, this moving film highlights stark, personal testimonies of five women with lived experience of navigating maternity care while living under asylum restrictions.
Maternity Stream of Sanctuary Resources
Information about use of hotel initial accommodation for pregnant women
Following a judicial review, the High Court has ruled that pregnant women/those with children under three in hotels must be provided their additional weekly payments. This was previously removed due to hotels being considered ‘full board’, but the court case found that the nutritional provision was not adequate for pregnant and breastfeeding women.
Women for Refugee Women: Report on the treatment of women living in hotels
Helen Bamber Foundation: Welfare, Maternity and Asylum Support Hotels report
Pregnant and Forgotten: Blog post from Refugee Action
Information about financial support for women seeking sanctuary
Asylum Support information from Gov UK
The Refugee Council: Maternity Care in the UK for women on asylum support
Information on the Sure Start maternity grant
Resources from Maternity Action
We work closely with Maternity Action, and strongly recommend their resources. They have information about women’s’ access to financial support, navigating charging for maternity care and so much more. Here are links to some of the most relevant reports
- Charging for NHS care: Guidance for Obstetricians in England
- Guidance on Improving Access to Maternity Care for Women Affected by Charging
- Maternity Health: exploring the lived experiences of pregnant women seeking asylum
- Breach of Trust: a review of the implementation of the NHS charging programme in maternity services in England
- Duty of Care: The impact on midwives of NHS charging for maternity care
Resources from the Royal Colleges
We work closely with the Royal Colleges to advocate for better maternity care for women seeking sanctuary. In 2022 the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists called for an urgent review of how the UK Government cares for pregnant women in the asylum system. To read the statement, click here.
The Royal College of Midwives have published a pocket guide to help midwives navigate care for women seeking sanctuary, click here to access it. If you are an RCM member, you can also complete an online iLearn module here.
Resources to support in cases of dispersal
Pregnancy Care Transfer Cards: Developed by Surrey Heartlands Local Maternity and Neonatal System, these transfer cards are now available in 28 languages. Designed to be helpful for women who may be relocated at short notice.
Home Office: Escalation routes for health professionals concerned about dispersal in pregnancy
Click here to access a draft letter developed by the Maternity Stream of Sanctuary to support you to advocate for women in this situation.
Resources to support women who do not speak English
The following digital resource pack is for use by commissioners of maternity services, and for maternity service providers such as midwives and obstetricians.
Event Recordings
Recording from the launch event of the Maternity Stream resource pack 27/01/22
Recording from the Facilitated Conversation ‘Overcoming the barriers to accessing maternity care’ 16/09/21
Other Videos
Maternity and Midwifery Hour recording featuring Wan from the Y&H Maternity Stream group – Providing empowerment and care to pregnant and childbearing migrants / refugees (16/03/22)
Videos produced by the Yorkshire and Humberside Maternity Stream
‘Women from the Shadows: Giving birth in a Hostile Environment’
‘Birth with Sanctuary’ – stories of birth, seeking sanctuary and working with sanctuary seeking women
You can access the full playlist on Youtube here
‘Childbirth in the UK: stories from refugees’ – stories from refugees about their experiences of childbirth
‘Childbirth in the UK: a guide for refugee women‘ – a video for pregnant women who are refugees or asylum seekers