new baby after children taken away

[mineralwater]

a few days after my son was born, my exbf shook him and he ended up almost dying. social services and the police were involved and he went into foster care. there was never any proof to say it was my ex so i was also under suspicion. we never got him back. during that time i had fallen pregnant again and my daughter was taken from hospital, and she has now been adopted into a family.

i finally managed to leave the abusive relationship with my ex and i am now happy and pregnant with my new partner, a million miles away from my past. social services are now in contact and theyve met us and had a look at the house etc and they seem very happy about it all. especially now ive removed myself from a horrible situation.

obviously im very worried this new baby wont come home. ive changed completely - no panic attacks leaving the house on my own, starting a degree in february, loads of support, friends. just things i never had before. my new partner is a police officer and knows everything and his work have been good about it.

while i was going through court for my son, i had to see a psychologist. she made things look worse than they were. saying i had all sorts of issues and that i wasnt capable of looking after a child until atleast 2 years of therapy. i really dont need this - i was severely depressed because of what had happened to my son.
im worried they will take a look at that and agree straight away. what can i do? what do you think will happen? will our baby come home?
my social worker seems rather positive but im always going to be worried i guess

please help

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Hello mineralwater

My name is Suzie and I am an adviser at Family Rights Group. Welcome to the forum and thank you for your post.

I’m really sorry to hear about the difficult and distressing time you have had in the past and the understandable anxiety this is causing you in relation to your new pregnancy.

Because your previous children were removed from your care, it is, unfortunately, inevitable that Children’s Services will need to assess your current situation now that you are pregnant again. This does not mean, however, that your new baby will be removed from your care.

Although your past will form a large part of their assessments, Children’s Services are making a new assessment of your current circumstances and current ability to parent your baby safely. Obviously this will take in to consideration the changes that have been made since their previous involvement and the fact that you have a new partner.

Depending on the outcome of Children’s Service’s assessments they could decide to issue new proceedings regarding this baby. They may decide, however, that this is not neccessary and look at putting a child protection plan (or child in need plan) in place for your baby. It is possible that Children’s Services will not see a need for them to be involved following their assessments and will close the case. Given your history, however, it seems likely that they will want to have some continued involvement, at least for a period of time.

Clearly I cannot say what the outcome of the assessment will be but, from what you have written, it sounds as though things are currently really positive. I would advise that you continue to work co-operatively with the social workers. Ensure they are clear about all of the positives in your new situation and ask them to be open and honest with you about their assessments, any concerns they have and their plans.

Do come back to us and let us know how things are going and if we can help further.

Best Wishes

Suzie
FRG Adviser