Saturday, July 03, 1999

Jailed mother barred from nursing

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Hamilton County won't permit baby in Justice Center

BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Barbara Ann Turner holds her new baby, Mackenzie Elizabeth Turner, as husband Sean Turner looks on at the Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus. (Craig Ruttle photo) ZOOM

        Barbara Ann Turner is back in the same county as her baby — the infant who triggered gubernatorial intervention with state prison officials to allow her husband to be present at delivery. But she might as well be a planet away.

        Back in Hamilton County for a hearing on a possible release into a drug treatment program, Mrs. Turner has been held in the Justice Center since Wednesday — and isn't permitted to even see her daughter Mackenzie Elizabeth, whom she had been nursing since her birth March 28.

        Five days a week, relatives drove the infant 100 miles to a Columbus prison for breast-feeding by her incarcerated mom.

        That ended when Mrs. Turner was transferred to Hamilton County this week. Her husband worries about the impact on the child.

        “You can already see a change in the baby because she's never been away from her mother this long,” Sean Turner, of Mariemont, said Friday, four days after Mac kenzie's last visit with her mother.

        “She's searching for her mother. She bites the bottle and she's been fussy. You can tell what she wants and she can't get it.”

        Under Hamilton County Justice Center regulations, Mackenzie's unlikely to get it any time soon.

        “In a nutshell, our policy is, and remains, that the mothers of newborns can use a breast pump, and the milk is given to the father — and that's it,” said Steve Barnett, a spokesman for the county sheriff's office, which runs the Justice Center. “... We do not allow the babies into the facility.”

        Mrs. Turner is serving time for prescription drug offenses. Her case gained widespread attention in March when Mr. Turner successfully fought to see Mackenzie's birth, with the help of Ohio Gov. Bob Taft and the American Civil Liberties Union.

        The family found a loophole that allows more frequent prison visits under certain conditions, which made breast-feeding possible.

        Mrs. Turner was transferred to Cincinnati to appear before Judge Deidra Hair, who was to consider releasing her to a Cincinnati-area drug treatment center. But the hearing was rescheduled for July 14, leaving Mrs. Turner in the Justice Center.

        Mr. Turner fought to have the date moved sooner, but because of the holiday weekend, the earliest available court date is Tuesday. By that time, eight days will have elapsed since the baby's last breast-feeding.

        “Eight days is a prolonged period of time; and with every day, you increase the risk that the baby's not going to go back to the breast,” said Chris Auer, a registered nurse and internationally certified lactation consultant at University Hospital.

        “The justice system has not had to confront this very often, and unless you have some philosophical investment in maintaining that relationship between mother and infant, you're not going to have the best outcome.”

        Mrs. Turner's milk supply has been dwindling, possibly from the stress — and her breasts have begun bleeding because she must use a breast pump every three hours to try to keep her milk flowing, Mr. Turner said.

        “You're supposed to wean a baby, and there is no weaning here,” he said. “This is a baby being totally yanked away from its mother.”

        Ms. Auer said the sudden change could be difficult for both mother and baby, adding, “If society says, "So what?' and shrugs its shoulders, we'll end up bearing the additional costs of health care. The health benefits of breast-feeding — for mother and baby — are well-documented.”

        Mr. Turner said the physical contact and bonding between mother and baby was even more important than the nutrition of the milk supply.

        “Why else would we have gone to all this trouble?” he asked.

        Mr. Turner contends that the jail's refusal to allow breast-feeding is violating the rights his wife is entitled to as a ward of the state. On Friday, he was trying to reach a civil-rights lawyer to act on his wife's behalf.

        “If this had been handled correct ly, it wouldn't have been a big deal,” Mr. Turner said. “But Barbie wasn't notified she was going to have a court date. She was brought down here in a rush ...

        “I tried to talk to (jail and court officials) about how important it was to keep the breast-feeding going; they didn't care.”

        Ironically, Mrs. Turner had petitioned Judge Hair for release into a drug-treatment center so she could be closer to MacKenzie and her two other children.

        “Having a baby in prison has been (nothing) less than traumatic,” she wrote in her petition to Judge Hair. “And being a mother is something that I never will take for granted again.”

        Judge Hair could not be reached on Friday.

       

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