Blue Jackie: Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Blue Jackie: Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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Dr JACKIE BLUE (National) 
: 
 I take great pleasure in rising to talk about the purpose of the Corrections (Mothers with Babies) Amendment Bill. Like my colleagues I congratulate Sue Bradford on bringing the bill to the House. It has unanimous support and why should it not? I think that it will achieve a significant change in a lot of people’s lives. 
The bill is not just about breastfeeding; I know that amendments have been made so that it can include bottle-feeding or other types of feeding. It is not exclusively about breastfeeding but breastfeeding is certainly a very important part of bonding between mother and child. Too often there is now a very poor percentage of women who continue to breastfeed and the women who are in prison and incarcerated with their babies will perhaps have a much much better chance ironically than women who are outside who go through district health board births and then have to get out of the hospital quite quickly because of the pressure on the number of beds. I think that that is one of the reasons we have such poor breastfeeding rates. 
The bill is also about allowing mothers to be with their children for up to 24 months and I think that it would be really interesting to do a prospective trial to look at the women going through. Once this legislation becomes enacted and we have the facilities built to cope with mothers and young babies we should do a trial to see how those women’s lives—and the lives of the babies for that matter—are affected coming out the other end and beyond. I went to a breakfast this week that was hosted by the Hon Tariana Turia. It was on models of positive youth development and there was a very interesting guest speaker from America Dr Larry Brendtro. He was basically saying that it is the bonding that is so important and it is the mentoring of an adult with a child that is so crucial in that child’s development. The same principle applies and even more so to small babies and their mothers. 
I think that this is a commendable bill. I wish that the bill goes speedily through the House and that the facilities are built so that we can see the good outcomes that come from this. Obviously not a lot of women would have young babies in prisons but this bill will accommodate those women who are pregnant and have children while they are in prison. The current law provides for mothers to be with their babies for 6 months and that provision has been in existence since 1961. This bill will change that and turn that length of time into 24 months. I think that there is an acceptance that in 24 months the child and the mother will be well and truly bonded and it gives the woman a chance to turn her life around in a way that she may not otherwise be able to do in the outside world. Of course it comes with strings attached. There have to be parenting agreements between the mother and the facility to make sure that she abides by the law goes to parenting groups cannot take drugs and so forth and that is fair enough too. But I think that this bill has potentially excellent outcomes for both mothers and their babies and I am delighted to speak to this purpose clause. Thank you.