Report: Pregnant Prisoners Shackled During Birth, Despite State Bans
A new six-month investigation by award-winning reporter Victoria Law has documented the inhumane treatment of pregnant women incarcerated in the United States. The investigation begins with the story of a woman who gave birth while locked in a Texas jail cell without any medical attention in 2012. The baby was born dark purple and unresponsive, with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. The baby later died. The investigation, published in In These Times, also revealed pregnant women are sometimes shackled during labor, even in states that have outlawed the practice. Tawanna Nelson, who was imprisoned in Arkansas, tells of giving birth while shackled in 2010.
Tawanna Nelson: «Once I arrived at the delivery room, the labor room, I was shackled. My feet were shackled to the bed, the metal post of the bed, and my hand was shackled to the IV rail. I asked for the chains to be removed. I asked for pain medicine. And I even asked—my pains were so tremendously, I asked for a cesarean. I didn’t have any pain medicine. The only thing I was given was two Tylenol. When the nurses came in, the guard would remove the chains, but as soon as the nurses would leave out of the room, the guard would shackle me back. So within a two-to-three-minute period, once they checked me and go chart the notes, the guard would put the chains back on me. And I felt that the guard somehow was trying to teach me a lesson of being pregnant and being in prison.»