Dispatches: Born Homeless

Pregnancy should be an exciting time, but what do you do when you’re expecting a baby and have no place to call home?

Homelessness is on the rise in the UK, and Born Homeless tells the story of three mums, fighting to keep their families safe and off the street.

Nobody knows how many pregnant women face the possibility of having their baby without a home to go back to, but now True Vision, in collaboration with the Royal College of Midwives, has conducted an exclusive survey of midwives to get a sense of scale of the problem.

The programme reveals that 99.7% of midwives have seen mothers who are homeless over the past six months.

Jess Stevenson and Sunnah Khan’s film follows three mums - two of whom are heavily pregnant - experiencing evictions, overcrowding and the reality of living in temporary accommodation for years on end.

One of the mums, Sam, goes undercover for Dispatches and records her meeting with a placement officer at Lambeth Council who places her in dirty and unsuitable accommodations.

Sam says, “One of the things that you are always taught in social work is that the welfare of the child is paramount. You put the welfare of the child first before anything else. I just can’t believe that the council is letting them down.”

Sam, Temi and Kady. This is their story, of three mums bringing life into a very uncertain world.