I'm sure there is another side to the story, but she was at least able to communicate:
By now Essex social services were involved, and five weeks later she was told she could not have breakfast that day. When no explanation was forthcoming, she volubly protested. She was strapped down and forcibly sedated, and when she woke up hours later, found she was in a different hospital and that her baby had been removed by caesarean section while she was unconscious and taken into care by social workers.
Source
I would guess that part of the reasoning behind her sectioning was because she was a non national with no family, friends or fixed abode in the country and also because she was pregnant.
I cannot fathom how traumatic that must have been for her. I can't understand why social services are hanging on so tight to the baby. She has no relationship with the UK and if the mother is unable to care for her, she should at least be returned to Italian social services where she can be raised in her own country, learn her own language etc. To deny the child the opportunity to be raised by her mother or access to her culture etc is wrong. She has extended family, two siblings, a grandmother, she deserves to know them.
There was a
case in Ireland recently involving a woman that came to Dublin to give birth in order to avoid social services in England. The child was taken into care at birth, the report says the mother has a personality disorder. The High Court here decided that the child had no relationship to Ireland apart from being born here and the child was returned to England (despite the local authority in England wanting nothing to do with it and saying there was nothing they could do for the child). Just to add, this is taken from the statutory body that is responsible for oversight of and reporting on childcare proceedings so it is factual.
On the face of it, the whole reaction of social services up to now seems to be very heavy handed. I sincerely hope this is raised in the House of Commons because it is a matter of public interest and if social service's actions are shown to have been fair and proportionate, that's fine, but if not perhaps it will stop this happening to another pregnant woman suffering with a mental illness. If there is an inquiry, then the professionals involved in her care can be compelled to break confidentiality and give evidence. This is the kind of story that really frightens people and for that reason the facts of the case need to be established.