Homeless pregnancy toolkit

There is no current robust data on the incidence of pregnancy in homeless women (both hostel based and rough sleeping women) or outcomes for babies or mothers. We have developed a pregnancy toolkit to improve health and development outcomes for babies born to homeless women. The toolkit also sets out to how to empower pregnant homeless women to have a degree of choice and decision making over their pregnancy.

Many homeless women have experienced a history of adversity which can impact upon the woman’s lifestyle, motivation, ability to engage with services, make changes and parenting capacity. Vulnerable and socially excluded women (which can include women who are homeless) are at increased risk of maternal death. Pregnancy is a time of increased vulnerability for homeless women as there is an increased risk of physical harm, financial and sexual exploitation. Woman may have previous pregnancies which have resulted in children being removed from their care. This can result in reluctance to engage with services, anxiety, experiencing feelings of shame and isolation which can sometimes result in increased substance misuse. Many homeless women (78% of hostel based women) have diagnosed mental health conditions and pregnancy and the peri-natal period