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”.

The princess, in contrast to more glamorous royal engagements, stepped through the security gates in the rain, ahead of a tour of the prison, which holds about 400 inmates, some serving life sentences.

While there, she met specialist staff supporting new mothers, and visited a nursery for babies who will have to spend their first formative months inside a jail.

On her fourth official visit to a prison, the princess met women being supported by the Action for Children charity, which runs mother and baby units in three prisons in the north of England.

“Being a mum in prison is difficult,” a former inmate told her. But she said that the specialist help provided a “safe space” and gave her a chance of training and help with learning about parenthood.

“I’ve made silly decisions and ended up in this position, but you can’t turn back the clock. But I’ve got as much out of it as I could,” she said, telling the princess that she had embraced what she could learn while in prison.

The former inmates also talked about the stigma attached to having a baby in prison – and the princess talked to staff about the importance of “attachment and bonding”, including for mothers who had faced trauma in their own lives.

But there were also shouts and whistles as the royal visitor moved around the prison, with calls from inmates: “We need more funding. Tell them the truth.”

Last year, there were warnings about safety from women who had been inmates at the prison – and there had been an increase in the mental health support budget for the jail.

The prison hopes that helping new mothers build a strong connection with their newborns while in jail will reduce the risk of reoffending when inmates are released.

The princess has a strong interest in early years education, as set out in her Shaping Us initiative, which emphasises the importance of the first five years of a child’s life.

Tuesday’s visit to HMP Styal continues this campaign to raise awareness of those early years.

It is the latest in a series of engagements this year, as the princess returns to work after the end of her cancer treatment