Pregnant In Prison: Giving Birth In Shackles

Boulder Weekly
Listen to Pamela White's interview on KGNU about this story by clicking here.
Tammy White lies back on the examination table and lifts her green smock and gold T-shirt to reveal a bulging belly. She is expecting her fifth child. The mother of three boys and one girl ranging in age from 9 to 19, she’ll give birth to this baby — a girl — sometime around May 23.
Pam Spry, a certified nurse midwife, measures White’s uterus by stretching a measuring tape from her pubic bone to her fundus — the top of her uterus — and finds that the baby’s growth is right where it should be for a fetus at 21 weeks and three days of gestation.
It’s good news, but not a surprise. White already had an ultrasound, as well as an alpha-fetoprotein test, and both tests showed that her baby is developing normally despite the fact that White, 36, is considered to be at higher risk for fetal defects because of her age.
Spry chats with White about how she’s feeling. The two listen to the baby’s heartbeat using a handheld Doppler ultrasound device, the steady rhythm making White smile.
Then her smile fades. She slowly sits up, pulls her shirt back into place, fiddles with the identification band on her wrist, clearly not anxious to get back to her unit.
“I just hope I’m out before I deliver,” she