Pregnancy, Motherhood and the Sensory Realities of Imprisonment: Reflections from England and Japan

This article draws on over a decade of research on pregnancy and early motherhood in English women’s prisons, alongside a visit to Tochigi Women’s Prison, Japan, funded by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation. It explores how institutional environments, cultural norms, and sensory conditions shape maternal wellbeing. In England , women report noisy wings, variable material conditions, and reliance on key staff such as Pregnancy Mother and Baby Liaison Officers. In contrast, Japanese prisons emphasise order, cleanliness, and quiet, with tightly regulated routines and formal staff–prisoner interactions, producing calm but reinforcing conformity. Using a sensory criminology lens, the paper highlights how sound, space, and routines may affect emotional and embodied experiences of pregnancy and motherhood in English and Japanese prisons. Comparative findings identify common challenges and emphasise the importance of the sensory and spatial dimensions of imprisonment in shaping maternal wellbeing.