State law would prevent restraining inmates during birth (WA)

[ccharles000]

TACOMA, Wash. - Kimberly Mays has given birth to ten children, but she said none of the deliveries was as traumatic as the birth of her son Kenny in 2000.

"It was like a horror movie to me," Mays told KING 5.

The Tacoma woman was serving a 13-month sentence at the time at the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor.

When she began going into labor and had to be transported to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tacoma, she said she was put in leg and wrist restraints.

Mays said she was handcuffed while riding in the ambulance and when she was in active labor she said she was "shackled" to the hospital bed.

"I felt like an animal who was giving birth in front of her masters," said Mays.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34888753