With a prison population of approximately 9000 women in England, it is estimated that approximately 600 pregnancies and 100 births occur annually. Despite an extensive literature on the sociology of reproduction, pregnancy and childbirth among women prisoners is under‐researched. This article reports an ethnographic study in three English prisons undertaken in 2015‐2016, including interviews with 22 prisoners, six women released from prison and 10 staff members. Pregnant prisoners experience numerous additional difficulties in prison including the ambiguous status of a pregnant prisoner, physical aspects of pregnancy and the degradation of the handcuffed or chained prisoner during visits to the more public setting of hospital. This article draws on Erving Goffman's concepts of closed institutions, dramaturgy and mortification of self, Crewe et al.'s work on the gendered pains of imprisonment and Crawley's notion of ‘institutional thoughtlessness’, and proposes a new concept of institutional ignominy to understand the embodied situation of the pregnant prisoner.

Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.This research paper provides an analysis of humour expression as a primary coping mechanism by emergency personnel involved in sudden deathwork in the accident and emergency environment. For a number of decades, the expression of humour has been of interest to philosophers, social psychologists, sociologists, and social anthropologists. More recently the subject captured the attention of researchers of the service professions particularly, in relation to the beneficial expression of humour by emergency personnel. The research took place in accident and emergency departments at hospitals in the North of England. Nine focus groups were conducted on three sets of nurses in three accident and emergency departments, three groups of paramedics at their respective hospital ambulance station, and three groups of traffic officers from one Constabulary covering the geographical area of the three hospitals. The results identified seven themes containing examples of the expression of humour in sudden death encounters from everyday practice. The discussion explains how sudden death has become an existential problem generating societal fears about mortality, decay, and decomposition, which impact on how emergency personnel feel about and handle the sudden death aspect of their role. The value of humour as a stress reducing mechanism is recognized by emergency personnel and acknowledged as a normalizing characteristic of emergency care culture

Accessible summaryWhat is known on the subject?• There is a growing body of evidence that many people with an autism spectrum condition suffer anxiety in their daily life and a realization among practitioners that admission to a mental health unit for this population is usually a negative anxietyinducing experience.• Anxiety is driven by the intolerance of uncertainty that is being unsure of what is going to happen, how long the uncertainty will exist and the insistence of sameness which, when compromised, can be anxiety provoking. Equally, confusion in understanding personal emotional responses and those of others is a source of anxiety. What this paper adds to existing knowledge?• This paper builds upon existing understanding of anxiety as a causative factor of mental ill-health for people with an autism spectrum condition.• Specifically, this paper explores the potentially anxiety-inducing experience of mental health unit admission; how anxiety is felt, triggered, expressed and managed. What are the implications for practice?• As many different anxiety responses could be exhibited during hospitalization, including violent acts and self-harming, for mental health practitioners working in the inpatient units, it is essential that the thoughts, feelings and responses of the patient with an autistic spectrum condition (ASC) are better understood and that support offered during their stay in a mental health facility is from an informed position. AbstractBackground: This qualitative study explored how mental health inpatients with autistic

Many emergency nurses find it difficult to support relatives whose loved ones are being resuscitated or to witness relatives' distress after their family members have died. When such events occur, emergency practitioners have few opportunities to engage effectively with relatives and so they must get it right first time, every time. Consequently, they need to be able to give information sensitively, and express compassion and empathy, to bereaved relatives. This article discusses these issues and includes exercises that practitioners can undertake to identify their personal strengths and professional competences when caring for suddenly bereaved relatives.

There is growing evidence to show increased mental ill health in women compulsorily separated from their babies at birth (Cantwell et al., MBRRACE‐UK, 2018:56). For imprisoned women, the risk of self‐harm and suicide may be exacerbated. This article draws on in‐depth interviews with a sample of 28 imprisoned pregnant women/new mothers, 10 prison staff and observations to discuss the experience of separation from or anticipation of separation of women from their babies. Oakley (Signs, 4:607–631, 1980) reflected on the transition to motherhood with reference to the sociology of loss of identity. Women who have been compulsorily separated from their babies experience subjugated loss out of place with societal norms. The experiences of compulsory separation, in relation to concepts of disenfranchised grief, resonate with Lovell's (Social Science & Medicine, 17:755–761, 1983) research into the altered identities of mothers when loss occurs through late miscarriage or stillbirth. Additionally, this type of complex loss also denies a woman her identity as a ‘mother’. This article offers a fresh sociological perspective on the ways loss and grief are experienced by women facing separation from their babies in prison, drawing on concepts of uncertainty, loss and disenfranchised grief.