The newborn child of a woman convicted of manslaughter in Prince George could be the first baby in B.C. to spend the first four years of her life in federal prison, under a rarely-used rule.

Lisa Whitford, 35, was sentenced Wednesday to six years for the shooting death of her common-law husband, 49-year-old Anthony Cartlidge.

But in the interests of the young child, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Glen Parrot said that Whitford's newborn baby Jordyn can stay with her in a special unit of a federal prison.

"It's never happened before," Dave Lefebvre, B.C. spokesman for Corrections Canada, told CTV News.

"In Canada, it happens very rarely," he said.

Whitford was two weeks pregnant when she shot Cartlidge in August 2006. Because of a string of criminal convictions, her lawyers did not seek bail and instead let her live in Alouette Correctional Centre for Women.

She eventually gave birth to Jordyn in March of 2007, in custody. The pair lived in a special area of the prison, but when she was convicted in a sentence of more than two years, she was told she would have to move to the federal correctional system.

The Fraser Valley Institution for women was the only federal prison in B.C. with the facilities for the Mother-Child Program, and Whitford will head there for her sentence.

Her lawyer, Bruce Kaun, said that while Whitford has had drug and alcohol problems in the past, the baby has been one reason she has straightened out.

"Lisa worked hard to make herself a responsible mother and I hope that she will continue to take advantage of the programs in the prison," he told CTV News.

Under the Mother-Child Program, prison officials allow a child to stay with her mother full-time for the first four years of his or her life, and can live part-time in the prison until they are twelve years old.

The idea is to preserve a bond between the mother and the child, which prison authorities say is in the child's best interests.

Inmates have access to public health care nurses, pre- and post-natal counselling, breast-feeding, nutrition specialists, and mother-to-mother mentoring programs.

And the prison warden must ensure that the child is safe. Prison staff have to report any abuse or neglect to local authorities.

Frisk searches and strip searches of children in the program are not permitted under any circumstances, say the rules, and are to be carried out "with the utmost discretion and consideration for the impact on the child, and with sensitivity to the child's gender and age," the rules say.

In an emergency such as a lockdown, the child is to be removed from the area. If the child is captured by an inmate, the rules say that the staff must treat it as a hostage situation, the rules say.

Whitford is getting two years credit for time served since July, when her husband was murdered.

In 2003, she was sentenced to two years in jail for robbing a Burger King with a replica firearm.