The daughter of an inmate uses a staircase inside the Unidad (Unit) 33 prison in Los Hornos, near La Plata, the capital of Buenos Aires Province, in late October 2007. REUTERS/Carolina Camps It's nearly impossible to be a good mother when you're stuck behind bars.

For incarcerated mothers around the world, the best they can hope for are nursury programs, which let children live with their mothers while they're young. Beyond that they are limited to occasional visits.

There are few provisions for mothers in prison in the U.S., where more than 120,000 imprisoned women have children under 18, according to a 2010 Pew Research report. Only nine states in the U.S. have prison nurseries.



Photos of mothers behind bars around the world were collected in a recent Reuters photo series.