Texas authorities seized a Black couple's newborn baby because the parents chose a midwife to treat their baby over a hospital.
On March 21, Dallas parents Temecia and Rodney Jackson chose to do a home birth for their newborn daughter, Mila, with the help of licensed midwife Cheryl Edinbyrd. Three days after the birth, the parents took Mila to see their pediatrician, where they learned that the baby had developed a case of jaundice, a very common condition for newborn infants, which usually goes away in a week or two even without treatment, according to Jezebel.
Dr. Anand Bhatt, the pediatrician, stated that baby Mila's case for jaundice was severe enough that she needed to be taken to the Baylor Scott & White Hospital in Dallas to undergo phototherapy treatment. However, the Jacksons opted once again to do the treatment in the safety of their home under the supervision of their midwife, which they disclosed to their pediatrician. They even informed him that they would supplement Temecia's breast milk as he had recommended and provided him with their midwife's contact number.
Due to their decision, Bhatt wrote a letter to Dallas Child Protective Services, expressing his concern that they had "the wrong lights for the treatment." He further stated that he was reporting the situation because the family was not responding to him after numerous failed attempts to contact and make an appeal to them.
"Parents are very loving and they care dearly about their baby...Their distrust for medical care and guidance has led them to make a decision for the baby to refuse a simple treatment that can prevent brain damage. I authorized the support of CPS to help get this baby the care that was medically necessary and needed," the letter stated.
'They had stolen my baby'
After a few days, the Jacksons narrated how the Dallas police officers and CPS agents arrived at their residence around five in the morning. They were informed that their pediatrician had reported them and demanded they turn their baby Mila over.
They refused to give their daughter to the group, and the latter eventually left, only to return after a few hours, announcing that Mila was now under the legal custody of the Dallas CPS. The Jacksons once again firmly refused and asked for help from their midwife.
Their midwife reached out to Bhatt, informed him how traumatized the parents were, and gave her credentials as he requested.
"He pretty much said he was going to leave our care and our midwife teams," Temecia said Thursday at a press conference at The Afiya Center, a Dallas-based, Black-women-led birth and reproductive justice organization.
Unfortunately, the real horror was just about to happen.
On April 4, the authorities returned while Rodney was walking their dog outside their home. After refusing once again to surrender their daughter, the police placed him under arrest and got his keys, which they used to open the house. They then immediately seized Mila from her mother while she was alone.
The legal team representing the Jacksons pointed out a flaw in the authorities' process - the affidavit they used to justify the legal custody of CPS listed the wrong mother. The name placed was of a different woman with a criminal record for child neglect, WFAA reported.
"Unlawfully, [they] entered my home to take my baby from me. Instantly, I felt like they had stolen my baby, as I'd had a home birth. I didn't know where to turn," Temecia expressed, fighting back tears.
US Family Policing System
As of April 6, baby Mila remains in the foster home, under the custody of Dallas CPS, which The Afiya Center has equated to a "kidnapping."
The first hearing was supposed to be scheduled last April 6, yet it was postponed to April 20.
The case caught the attention of Dorothy Roberts, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, and activist.
According to her, the case of the Jacksons reflects the family policing system, "a structurally racist apparatus that disproportionately separates Black and Indigenous children from their families, one that traces its origins to chattel slavery," as described by The Guardian.
"This form of state intervention and family separation is the common experience for Black children in America. Children are taken on grounds of neglect where there isn't any evidence of severe abuse. We could imagine a better way of dealing with the families' and the children's needs without resorting to this traumatic intervention of seizing children. We shouldn't think of them as aberrant cases," explained Roberts, the author of Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families - and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World.
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