It should have been a joyous moment.
A newborn baby, pink and perfect, dark hair and cherub face, swaddled in a blue blanket; his mother looking on from her hospital bed.
She smiled at me but there was sadness in her eyes.
Then I saw a sign in big, black, bold letters posted on the bassinet, above her sleeping baby’s head: “APPREHENDED BY C.A.S.” (Children’s Aid Society.)
Those words meant that this child would soon be taken from its mother. Two social workers, maybe assisted by police officers, would come in and apprehend the infant.
Always a gut wrenching scene.
As a single parent, I understood the struggle of just being a new, young mother. Let alone being watched, and judged, and then labelled a “bad” mother.
March is Women’s History Month. Thirty-one days set aside for all of us to reflect upon the many ways that “women from all cultures have contributed to healing and hope.”
In the early 1980s, I worked as a research writer for a government-funded fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) study aimed at finding out how an expectant mother’s alcohol intake affects her unborn baby.
My work took me daily into a Manitoba hospital maternity ward where I talked with new mothers to compile data for the study. That’s how I first learned about birth alerts.
There were cases when taking a newborn from its mother’s care was the only option. But some birth alerts resulted from false allegations, or lack of social support and proper prenatal care.
I remember holding a baby whose mother had sniffed gasoline during her pregnancy. The baby was born early, with severe facial abnormalities and low Apghar (response) scores. So tragic.
Birth alerts have led to class action lawsuits and a finding from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, in its final report in 2019, called birth alerts “racist and discriminatory.”
Courts and condemnations aside, it would be good, going forward, to address the root causes, or lack of key social programs which results in any mother leaving hospital with empty arms.
And there is hope.
Recently, most provinces in Canada (including BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, PEI and Yukon) have dropped the practice of birth alerts.
So we can chalk that one up on the calendar for March…another nod to Women’s History Month.
Those words meant that this child would soon be taken from its mother. Two social workers, maybe assisted by police officers, would come in and apprehend the infant.
Always a gut wrenching scene.
As a single parent, I understood the struggle of just being a new, young mother. Let alone being watched, and judged, and then labelled a “bad” mother.
March is Women’s History Month. Thirty-one days set aside for all of us to reflect upon the many ways that “women from all cultures have contributed to healing and hope.”
So how well have we done?
In the early 1980s, I worked as a research writer for a government-funded fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) study aimed at finding out how an expectant mother’s alcohol intake affects her unborn baby.
My work took me daily into a Manitoba hospital maternity ward where I talked with new mothers to compile data for the study. That’s how I first learned about birth alerts.
There were cases when taking a newborn from its mother’s care was the only option. But some birth alerts resulted from false allegations, or lack of social support and proper prenatal care.
I remember holding a baby whose mother had sniffed gasoline during her pregnancy. The baby was born early, with severe facial abnormalities and low Apghar (response) scores. So tragic.
In the nursery that same day there was a “crack baby”… a cruel term considering that unborn babies have no part in choosing to ingest drugs.
The social worker noted on the mother’s chart that she was “still using,” and had no family support, so her baby was deemed to be “at risk.” The new mom was also just 18 years old and Caucasian.
The social worker noted on the mother’s chart that she was “still using,” and had no family support, so her baby was deemed to be “at risk.” The new mom was also just 18 years old and Caucasian.
She had some red flags which at that time included issues like poverty, teen pregnancy, substandard housing conditions, drug or alcohol abuse and mental health issues.
Children must always be safe and so these alerts are a call that social workers have to weigh carefully — and I don’t envy them that position.
Birth alerts have led to class action lawsuits and a finding from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, in its final report in 2019, called birth alerts “racist and discriminatory.”
Courts and condemnations aside, it would be good, going forward, to address the root causes, or lack of key social programs which results in any mother leaving hospital with empty arms.
And there is hope.
Recently, most provinces in Canada (including BC, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, PEI and Yukon) have dropped the practice of birth alerts.
So we can chalk that one up on the calendar for March…another nod to Women’s History Month.