A mother describes moment her baby was taken into care

A woman has told BBC 5 Live how she is building a new life after her four children were taken into care.

Joanne (not her real name) had already had two sons taken into care when she became pregnant for a third time.

She had been in a violent relationship with a drug addict, and became hooked herself.

Midway through her third pregnancy, by a different man who was already off the scene, Joanne was told that social services would take her new baby into care as soon as he was born.

She told BBC Radio 5 live’s Jim Taylor that she does not blame the authorities for taking that decision.

"To carry a baby around for nine months, to lay there knowing that he's getting taken away the next day, is pretty goddam hard. I had nowhere to live, I was using drugs. Basically, it was unstable for a baby to be around me."

Joanne is now part of a The Pause project, which aims to reduce the number of children taken into care by offering contraception to vulnerable women, which has been extended to work across England.