{"id":7496,"date":"2014-04-14T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-04-14T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.wnpt.org\/mediaupdate\/?p=7496"},"modified":"2014-04-14T09:48:26","modified_gmt":"2014-04-14T14:48:26","slug":"call-the-midwife-recaps-season-3-episode-3-mother-behinds-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.wnpt.org\/mediaupdate\/2014\/04\/14\/call-the-midwife-recaps-season-3-episode-3-mother-behinds-bars\/","title":{"rendered":"`Call the Midwife` Recaps: Season 3: Episode 3: Mothers Behinds Bars"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the third season in-a-row, we are honored to have the faculty of the Vanderbilt School of Nursing <\/a>back to guest blog for us each Monday morning about the previous night’s episode of Call the Midwife<\/a>,<\/em> airing on Sundays on NPT and PBS Stations nationwide at 7:00 p.m. Central, March 30-May 18. Check in here every Monday morning for the next eight weeks for historical and contemporary context on the show, and some fun discussion. Plus, this year we’ll have the occasional bonus blog from across the pond to get the British perspective. So be sure to check the blog<\/a> TWICE on Mondays. SPOILER ALERT: Some posts may contain spoilers, so please be aware of that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"CTM_03_17_22MB_blog\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Michelle Collins PhD, CNM<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Michelle<\/p>\n

\u201cPrison is no place to have a baby!\u201d utters midwife Trixie Frankliin (Helen George) in this week\u2019s episode. Trixie and Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter) tend to female prison inmates, with Sister Julienne in particular, going above and beyond on behalf of a young inmate. As stark as the circumstances for the incarcerated woman seem in the episode, it is startling how little progress has been made in the care of these extremely vulnerable women since the time period depicted in the series. The great majority of incarcerated women today have been convicted of non-violent crimes, many just first-time offenders.<\/p>\n

In 2010, the National Women\u2019s Law Center and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights released the Mothers Behind Bars<\/em> report\u00b9, which examined 3 main aspects in the care of incarcerated women; prenatal care, the routine shackling of laboring women, and alternative incarceration programs. The report afforded a \u201cgrade\u201d to individual states in each of the 3 areas, based on each state\u2019s policies. Surprisingly, or perhaps not surprising to many, 20 states, as well as the District of Columbia were afforded failing grades overall (when the 3 grades were averaged); 22 were given a C grade, and 7 a B; one state was given an A- (Pennsylvania). Consider just some of these startling facts from the report:<\/p>\n