Unborn Baby on Child Protection - Help

[confusedandstressed97]

I’m prepared to be judged…

Several years when pregnant with my first child I developed severe mental health problems during pregnancy and post partum. Unfortunately, I didn’t recognise this and neither did the midwifery services until months after my DC was born.

My child was removed from my care and placed with family. DC is settled now, so although I have regular contact they will stay there until adulthood as that is their home.

I’m now 14 weeks pregnant with second DC. I was contacted by social services to say I would need a new assessment for baby and if that was positive there was no reason I could not have DC1 back too. I have always been told there was no chance of that in the past as DC1 is under a CAO and very happy.

Social Services have explained the only concern they have is my mental health. Since finding out I was pregnant I have referred to every mental health support service in my area.

The problem I have is the social worker was very upfront and said ‘it is highly likely this child will be on a child protection plan’ and to prepare for all the meetings that come with that. This is majorly stressing me out, I can’t eat/sleep/do anything as I’m just in a complete blind panic.

My situation is very rare in the sense I have no other risk factors whatsoever. i also was not ill before pregnancy or after the 12 month post birth, it was a pregnancy related illness.

Does anyone have advice on what to expect from unborn baby being on a child protection plan and if they are, what’s the likelihood of them being removed from my care. I can cope with my baby being on a plan, as I actually welcome the support. My panic is if they decide to go off track and try to remove baby.

Can social services remove a baby due to a previous risk if I’m engaging in every service possible and I am currently well?

TIA

What would be the motivation to remove a child from a mother who is well and engaging with services?
Obviously being pregnant and giving birth again risks affecting your mental health as it did last time but I don't think there's much you can do to predict or mitigate against that as you are currently doing.
Like you say, being on a plan means more input and more support for as long as you're able to meet your babies needs.
Looking after yourself in pregnancy, going to all appointments and taking care of you can only reflect well. Hope pregnancy going smoothly for you otherwise so far x

Try not to worry. There are hundreds and hundreds of children on CP plans living with their parents. It does NOT mean automatic removal.

Try to think of it as a safety net. If you become unwell again after the birth then there will be more services involved to check up on you more often and get you the support you need to have baby with you.

If mental health is the only reason that DC1 was removed and you're following guidance and receiving appropriate care, I imagine they'll keep unborn baby on a plan for the first year or so to check that your health remains good, before dropping it to a CIN/no plan.

The CP plan is actually the lowest type of plan that you have to engage with - all plans/services below are optional, and they would need you to engage just in case you become unwell.

If they did try to remove on a CP plan the LA would need to go to court anyway - they couldn't just take baby.

Please stay well and try not to worry. Good luck!

When I was pregnant with DC1 it took from week 8 to 25 for me to go from completely well to very unwell. I was then left for a further 20 weeks unwell.

By the time I was taken to hospital I was one of the most poorly post partum women the department had seen. I was completely unintelligible and as embarrassing as it is I had to have multiple police/security guards in my room as I kept trying to leave (I had no idea I was in a hospital to help me)

My worry is that social services are saying ‘you could become unwell at any time’ almost insinuating if I bring baby home I might wake up one day and be severely unwell, which is just not how the illness works. They’ve also said ‘I could be hiding my illness from them’ I have no idea how a person can hide severe perinatal and postnatal psychosis from professionals?!

I am literally doing every single thing I can. What happened in my first pregnancy was almost like a freak accident, I had no risk factors but I was the unlucky woman who became poorly.

Thank you. I know they’re just doing their job, I had a really bad experience with them with DC1 so as soon as I here ‘social services’ I immediately think someone is going to remove my baby.

It’s just difficult because their involvement is almost making my risk factors worst as I can’t sleep/eat/function as I’m in such a panic constantly.

My advice is do a SAR to see what the records say. My unborn was put on CP based on inaccurate information and the SW mislead me. I was in a DV situation so different to yours, but it was recorded as I was the risk and the abusive father was a protective factor. When I questioned what was being said about me it was recorded as me being mentally unwell delusional and not cooperating. I was so scared I jumped through all their hoops, I had to stay with an abusive man because if I didn't they would've taken my child and given her to him. It was living hell. They did drop it down to CIN when I shit up and acted meek. Anyway I did a SAR saw the misinformation, loads more stuff happened with them threatening me to stop questioning or they would record it as me not cooperating and step back up to CP. I did another SAR so I had evidence of these threats- but of course they don't write up they threaten you. But I found evidence they had gone back and edited the records to hide they made all the original decisions on false information and they wrote up they had investigated my accusations of DV when they hadn't. They filed inaccurate report to family court when I was fighting my ex for custody as by this point he had hurt the baby and I had to leave. That really had an impact on family court he got unsupervised access.

Anyway I took legal action against them. They paid me off. Family court did a criminal records check on ex and he had ABH and harassment charges etc on his record so while the court didn't officially find him guilty of the DV against me the record case enough doubt I did not loose my kid. The fact they doctored the records to say ex was safe and they had checked him and came after me for 'mental health' when I was suffering DV. The solicitor I used said he makes a living in cases like mine it happens far to much.

People never believe my story.

Every time I get pregnant in future the SS will do their assessment. Trail through all the trauma causing stress then act like I'm the problem being stressed. But it's procedure they have to check.

So yeah. Do a SAR. Write up your own minutes of meetings and email the SW. even better record them and write up verbatim what was said. Try not to talk on the phone always have evidence what was said. Since I started recording all meetings and sending my own minutes making sure all communication is in writing and complying but knowing the law they have backed right off. My last pregnancy I got a phone call from them asking if I'm doing ok and I said yes fine thanks and that was it.

I must be clear: do not be difficult or rude. Be firm amd clear but always always do it politely, even meekly. But know the law. Know your child's rights and your Rights. And don't be scared. Removing a child is a long difficult process if you don't agree to it. They won't be successful saying you are mentally unfit without a psychiatrist writing a report to support their view- if you are well then that report will never happen. They will be relying on your fear to force compliance.

So yeah. Keep everything in writing as though you will need evidence but don't be scared. Your baby needs you calm and not scared. Think if all the stories you hear of kids hurt with SS involved but they didn't protect the kid even with evidence. They won't take your kid if they try. And try not to hate them, they have a needed role in our society amd yes many are horrible humans who get a kick out of terrifying people into compliance but most care amd do a hard job low paid an high stress because they care.