ABSTRACT
The challenges of providing early parenting education in prison are considerable; the opportunities are rewarding. The educator aims ‘to capitalize on the unique opportunity for positive life change that is offered by the prospect of becoming a mother’ or a father. Women who are pregnant in prison are undergoing the physical and emotional challenges of pregnancy in an often hostile environment and far away from friends and family. Men and women prisoners are usually eager to ensure that their children have a better start in life than they themselves had and receive better parenting. The courts, government and local social services do not routinely ask about the children of convicted women and men and so they often remain hidden from services. Group sessions will have to accommodate women who are at various stages of pregnancy, as well as women who have just given birth or who gave birth some months.
