Peter Welch Asks Witness What Care Should Be Provided To Women Giving Birth While Incarcerated

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During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) questioned witnesses about caring for women giving birth while incarcerated.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you Senator Blumenthal. Senator Welch. Thank you all for being here. What

00:06a wonderful mom you are. Thank you. And grandmother too. It's amazing how you

00:14find, find it deep in you to be able to be so supportive of your daughter and

00:20your grandchild. So thank you so much. Thank you sir. Took a lot of strength and

00:26courage to be here. It did. You've got a lot of strength and a lot of courage. So

00:32thank you. And I just can only imagine what it means to your daughter to know

00:36the care you're taking for her and her child. So good for you. Doctor, I'm

00:44wondering if you could just, you probably were asked this already so don't repeat

00:49necessarily, but what are the specific things that that should be done to care

00:55for women giving birth while incarcerated that just that should be

01:01part of the routine and and and then address some of the resistance that is

01:09put in the way of treating folks who are going to be delivering the right way.

01:17Thank you Senator for your question. The services and care that should be

01:23provided to incarcerated pregnant women should be equivalent to the community

01:29standards of care. There are well-established guidelines, evidence

01:34based practices that I've been practicing for decades when it comes to

01:39caring for pregnant women, whether they're in the community or incarcerated.

01:43And incarcerated pregnant women should be cared for by those same exact medical

01:47standards. But on top of that, which includes things like routine prenatal

01:53visits, ultrasounds, laboratory tests, according to established guidelines. On

01:58top of that, women who are incarcerated and pregnant need additional support,

02:05additional mental health support for the trauma they're enduring, whether or not

02:09they have pre-existing mental health conditions. Because as you have heard

02:12today, and as we know this represents so many more women, the conditions even under

02:18the best of circumstances, which are few and far between, are still inherently

02:23traumatic. And so additional supports are needed. Some examples of those include,

02:28and we heard from Senator Booker earlier a little bit about this, providing doula

02:33support for incarcerated pregnant women during their pregnancy, during child

02:37birth in the hospital, and afterwards. While they're in the hospital and

02:42undergoing childbirth, incarcerated women should be treated with the same dignity

02:48and respect as any woman who is giving birth. She should not, under any

02:53circumstances, have to give birth in chains. This is the marker of a

02:59barbaric society, a barbaric practice that should not happen. It is medically

03:04unsafe for the mother and for the baby, and it is an affront to their dignity as

03:10well. Thank you. By the way, you know, we're talking about giving birth, pregnancy, but

03:16the medical standard, shouldn't that apply across the board to the medical

03:22needs of folks who are incarcerated? Absolutely. Medical standards of care

03:28that would apply to non-incarcerated women absolutely apply to incarcerated

03:33women as well. Yeah, I'm sorry, Ms. Zumberger, I missed your testimony, but you've

03:39gone through this. So maybe just for my benefit, describe a little bit more

03:46what you went through and what you'd recommend. Well, giving birth, the whole

03:57process of giving birth in prison was traumatizing. Having only two short hours

04:02to hold and look at my newborn before not seeing her for a few years later,

04:09that was tough. I was put in solitary confinement because I was worried about

04:18getting MRSA from a woman that they had initially put me in the room with. I just

04:24asked for cleaning supplies, and next thing I know I was in solitary. That

04:30experience in itself was tough. There's no access to medical care. You are the

04:36last person to get any food on the whole entire compound. So by the time it gets

04:40to you, it's hard as a breaker. It's really, really cold. It's not well.

04:47It's not good. And then, you know, having my children and foster care and me

04:57getting out and having the mission to find a home, and that search was

05:02difficult as well. I had to buy a house nine months post-incarceration.

05:06So, but yeah, I'm still healing. It's been, my daughter will be six, and I'm

05:16still healing. You know? Thank you. Well, thank you very much for that. I yield

05:22back. Thank you, Senator Welch. Ms. Umberger, you testified it feels like

05:27your kids.

Peter Welch Asks Witness What Care Should Be Provided To Women Giving Birth While Incarcerated

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