Romy Croquet
Pregnant In Prison: Armed Officers and Birth in Prison
In the winter of 2019, a woman gave birth alone in her prison cell at night. The woman yelled to staff and was ignored repeatedly. Tragically, the baby died and one of the only immediate actions taken by the prison in the aftermath of this tragedy was to have security guards check on pregnant women in prison hourly during the night. Later, in the winter of 2020 at Cumberland County Jail located in North Carolina a 30-year-old woman, Jaden Brown, gave birth in front of multiple correctional officers against her will. When she got out of prison, she sued the jail administrator, sheriff, and correctional officers at Cumberland County Jail claiming that her constitutional rights to privacy were violated.
In the United States about 3.8% of women incarcerated are pregnant. That means currently there are approximately 1,396 women who are pregnant in prison. While experiencing pregnancy in prison is rare when women do, the conditions are degrading, unhealthy, invasive, and sometimes fatal. Many women are even shackled during labor and are not able to hold their baby after birth. Sometimes prisons decide that certain mother's are not worthy of skin to skin contact after birth and their baby is shown to them and quickly taken away. In the 1970s, the first practice of skin to skin contact was in South America when they didn’t have enough incubators for all the babies in their hospital so they placed the babies on their mothers’ skin, allowing the mom’s body heat to warm the baby. The babies did very well.
Our taxes pay for prisons that disregard medical research for their inmates and go against doctors’; recommendations for births. The process of becoming pregnant and giving birth in jail is emotionally draining. Pregnant women might be given an extra pillow or an apple when they are experiencing pain instead of a proper health care. Many pregnant women in solitary confinement experience depression and anxiety- about 80% of pregnant inmates experienced these mental illnesses. Being alone in a cell as a pregnant woman is not the type of environment that is healthy. Being extremely stressed all the time and at very low points emotionally can hurt the physical health of your baby.
You can help by donating to organizations that help pregnant women in prison. These organisations may include funding for doulas or therapists for pregnant women and presenter talk through what they have been feeling during this time. It could also include a higher form of medical care to ensure their safety. We can also try to get anti-shackling laws passed in more states in the US. For example, in 2006 it was passed in California law that pregnant women in prison would not be shackled by the wrists or ankles while giving birth, going to the hospital, and recovering. Thirty two states have some form of ban on shackling during pregnancy, we need to make it fifty.
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