MOTHERING On-Line Magazine: interest in incarcerated pregnant women grows! →

I love how the conversation about incarcerated pregnant women and mothering in a prison nursery keeps spreading. Thanks to writer, Sheramy Tsai for doing such a thorough write-up.

This mother told me the story about getting her tattoo at a point in her life where she had hit rock bottom. Shortly afterwards, she learned she was not only pregnant but sentenced to prison. She explained, "After the birth of my daughter, I now know I have everything to lose." The prison nursery program has helped her discover another side of her self involving the love and care of her child.

Moms and Babies

Tara (37 weeks), 2015

First Day Back

I spent the few hours with two young women: one with her four-week old daughter and the other 37 weeks pregnant. I felt a little rusty, remembering how to work in the small spaces where each mother and baby pair live.

I know I’ve had a good time when I lose track of it, which is what I did. It felt right being around young mothers – one making a baby and the other breast-feeding hers. Benefits of breast-feeding are trickling down to offenders from the efforts made by public health nurses and midwives involved in applying this knowledge to incarcerated mothers. These days, a nurse-midwife is giving prenatal care within the prison clinic. Only two years ago, the pregnant women were driven to the midwifery setting in Lakewood. 

Back to the Prison Nursery

Yesterday, I returned to the prison nursery for the first time in two and a half years. I needed the break, having been a regular volunteer there from 2003-2012, even serving on committees and focus groups, and attending distant workshops. This time around, I promised myself just to enjoy the photography, the moms, and their sweet offspring. Part of the deal is to serve as a witness to the struggles and growth of incarcerated mothers raising their babies in a difficult situation.

Not much seems to have changed since my last time there in 2012. But, the outside grassy areas are now abundantly cultivated into useful gardens, giving a sense of real purpose to the work done by some of the inmates. The plantings, including colorful flowers, liven up the dreary blue-grey barracks that serve to house several hundred minimum-security offenders.  Otherwise, the sign on the entryway to the J Unit where the prison nursery is housed remains unchanged with the one misplaced adjective in an otherwise list of five nouns seeking to inspire those who cross the threshold: Reliable, Respect, Trust, Integrity, Honesty, Loyalty.

Probably the most poignant thing that happened yesterday was an unexpected encounter with an inmate that I knew from 2008. We both took a second look and drew closer together in surprise. Autumn had the same wide, warm smile that I remembered. One of her jobs was as a caregiver for some of the babies and toddlers. Autumn told me she is getting out on work release in August. Then she said, “I wish I could give you a big hug!” I smiled back, “Me too.” It brought back the memory of something she said in seven years ago that I wrote down: “And in prison, we don’t get to love. We don’t get to hug. We don’t get to love. But with the babies, we have this infant that has no mean intentions towards you at all… ever. Doesn’t even know what being mean means. And they love you and it’s unconditional.”

As we parted company - she going off to a job and me going off to photograph moms - Autumn and I exchanged a warm nod, “Well, consider yourself hugged, ok?” It is so hard to imagine spending years in confinement where human touch is not allowed. I think I would wither up.