Legal position relating to unborn children

This page explains the rights of fathers before the child is born as well as any children’s services involvement prior to the mother giving birth. 

Rights of fathers before birth

When the mother is pregnant the father does not have any rights to contact or to make decisions relating to the pregnancy.

The mother does not need the father’s consent to:

• Terminate a pregnancy
• Receive medical treatment
• Travel abroad

The father does need the mother’s consent to:

• Access medical records relating to the pregnancy
• Attend medical appointments with the mother, even those that directly relate to the pregnancy such as scans
• Be present at the birth or notified of the birth
• Visit the mother and baby in the hospital after the mother has given birth

Parental Responsibility

The mother automatically obtains parental responsibility on the birth of the child. A father cannot have parental responsibility for a child until after the child is born.

See our page on parental responsibility for further information. 

Children’s Services

Concerns about the mother

It is possible for children’s services to become involved with a mother before she has given birth to the child. They are able to carry out an investigation under section 47 Children Act 1989. Any investigations must be carried out in line with the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidelines. Children’s services cannot control the mother’s actions but can monitor the situation. A child protection plan can be put in place to ensure the child is not at risk from the moment they are born.

If the mother has disclosed the name of the father to children’s services, then they may contact him as part of the child protection process. Children’s services can assess the mother and father separately, so if only one parent is deemed to be a potential risk, then the child can be placed with the other parent.

The mother is not legally obliged to inform children’s services of the name of the father. If the mother does not inform children’s services of who the father is or refuses to share his contact details, then children’s services are not required to try to locate him.

If the father is aware that children’s services is involved while the mother is pregnant, he can contact them to express his desire to be involved in the child’s life and, if the child will be removed from the mother’s care when born, that he would like to be considered for the child to be placed with him. Before children’s services can work with or share information with the father, they may need to be satisfied that he is the biological father and that he has parental responsibility. Our How to Guide on Declaration of Parentage contains more information on confirming paternity.

From the day the child is born, both the father and children’s services can make applications to the family court about the child.

Concerns about the father

If the mother has raised concerns about the father to children’s services prior to the child’s birth, they have the same authority to intervene and implement a child protection plan. The plan could be to prevent the mother from allowing the father contact with the child and to support her in protecting the child from the father. The mother can refuse contact with the father informally or apply to the family court for a Child Arrangements Order to formalise this.

If children’s services has concerns about the father before the child is born, they can only recommend that the mother avoid contact with him; they cannot legally prevent her from spending time with him if she so desires. However, if the mother continues to associate with the father during the pregnancy, children’s services may become concerned and escalate matters after the child is born.