Kate Middleton visited a women's prison to highlight the importance of strong mother and baby relationships to a child’s development, even in the most challenging of environments.

The Princess of Wales continued her gradual return to public duties by visting HMP Styal in Cheshire - one of the largest women's prisons in the UK

The Princess of Wales has visited a women's prison in Cheshire, where she talked to inmates in a mother and baby unit. On a visit to HMP Styal, in Wilmslow, Catherine was shown a project designed to develop strong and healthy relationships between mothers and babies "even in the most challenging of environments".

When Kate chatted with staff from the mother and baby unit, she asked about its effects on reoffending, suggesting it was ‘massive’, and was told normal reoffending rates for women were around 70% but this reduced to just 12% with those receiving parental support.

Princess Kate spent the morning at a women's prison in Cheshire to visit its Mother and Baby Unit, which helps prisoners with babies up to 18 months old

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Princess Kate's visit to HMP Styal prison on Feb. 11 was intended to showcase the facility's mother and baby unit (MBU) and its connection to her early childhood work—the key focus of her royal initiatives in recent years.

The Princess of Wales stressed the importance of mothers wellbeing as she met inmates at a mother and baby unit in Cheshire. Kate visited the unit, which is one of three in the North of England providing inmates with support from trained staff and early years practitioners in a separate living area.