emotionally after the baby died and went on to have another daughter very quickly and has often mentioned that she wanted to have another baby to fill the void that the terminated baby left. She often suffers nightmares where her surviving daughter either dies or is abused and feels immense guilt upon waking. She is worried about social services involvement and postnatal depression which she developed after her first baby. When her baby was diagnosed with Edwards syndrome she had 12 hours to make a decision, she chose to terminate the pregnancy and feels that she made the right choice at the time. During her first pregnancy, she was involved in a domestic violence relationship with the father of her children, who then went to prison with she was pregnant with her son. She feels guilty about staying in the relationship but at the time felt it was important that the children had their father in their life. She had a drinking habit and was eventually arrested for abandonment after she left the children with a neighbour to get drunk. After the children were adopted she felt that she couldn’t stay in the house due to the painful memories and she found somewhere else to live. The children are subject to open adoption and receive letters once a year. Our sessions focus on the guilt she feels about how she behaved after her daughter died and that her children were taken. This particular client is currently residing in a mother and baby housing unit where she has twenty-four hour support should she need it.

The second client (N) has now had her baby and with support has her baby with her. This particular client has an older child living at home with her and her partner, her two middle children were placed with social services and have been adopted separately, she has many conflicting feelings, mostly around anniversaries, birthdays and Christmas. In the events that led up to her children being adopted, she was in a domestic abuse relationship while she had her daughter and was pregnant with her second, the relationship was very violent, controlling and both financially and emotionally abusive, it was when her partner locked her in the kitchen and attacked her that she stabbed him, ending up being arrested and charged, and given a suspended sentence, it was when she was pregnant with her third child that the abuse continued to such an extent that she attempted to stab him again and was subsequently jailed for a period of time, a section 20 (c) agreement was signed for the baby, Section 20 (c) of the Children’s Act 1989 states that every local authority shall provide accommodation for any child in need within their area who appears to them to require accommodation as a result of (c) the person who has been caring for him being prevented (whether or not permanently, and for whatever reason) from providing him with suitable accommodation or care. (The Children’s Act 1989, 2018). She stated that she found prison a positive experience and it made her realise that she could cope without her partner, and eventually left him in 2016.