Birth Behind Bars: Assisting the Tampa Bay Area's Pregnant Inmates Since 2001

Tarpon Springs-based non-profit Birth Behind Bars has been supporting incarcerated moms in the Tampa Bay Area for 13 years. At any given time, pregnant inmates make up 8 to 10 percent of the jail/prison population in the United States. The Birth Behind Bars team helps these forgotten women by teaching childbirth and parenting classes and serving as doulas during birth if allowed.

Birth Behind Bars was founded by Janice Banther, a certified labor doula and childbirth educator with CAPPA and one of the first certified labor doulas with DONA International in Florida. The founder and executive director of For the Love of Birth, Inc., she has supported expecting mothers and their babies since 1983, served as a doula at more than 600 births, and taught thousands of couples in the Tampa Bay Area. Banther started Birth Behind Bars in 2001 as a program that taught childbirth classes to pregnant inmates. Within a year, she and her team of doulas were allowed to accompany and assist the inmates at the hospital when they went to give birth and follow up with the women during the postpartum months while they were still in jail.

In 2009, Birth Behind Bars began offering classes to all the women in jail and not just the ones who were pregnant. Shortly after, at the request of the programs department, Banther and her team also started teaching the men how not to hurt a child. Inmates who attend the optional classes learn positive parenting, infant CPR, and other skills to help them stop the cycle of abuse in their families.

“Birth Behind Bars is more than teaching inmates about childbirth and parenting,” says Sydnie Arnold, a certified Lamaze educator. “We encourage them to make smart choices while providing labor and postpartum support. Empowering them to make better choices that will redirect their lives.”