Episode 126: Amy: Providing Incarcerated Mothers and Their Children with Care, Support, and Love

This week’s episode of The 1 Girl Revolution Podcast features Amy Ard, doula extraordinaire and Executive Director of Motherhood Beyond Bars. Motherhood Beyond Bars provides support for incarcerated mothers and their infants born to and works to build community between them and reunify families. The work that Motherhood Beyond Bars is doing is so unique and critical in the world today. Women are the fastest growing population within jail and prison, and many of those women show up to jail and prison pregnant. What happens to those women when it’s time to give birth? What kind of care and support do they have — or not have? What happens to the babies when the mom has to go back to jail or prison? In this episode of the 1 Girl Revolution Podcast, Amy answers those questions, she shares her own lived experiences as a doula, and she talks about the incredible work and she shares stories from this life-changing organization, Motherhood Beyond Bars. 

Pregnancy and birth should be a time of transformation, not trauma – and every woman should have access to quality care and compassionate childbirth support. Every child born to an incarcerated woman deserves love and support from a community of care. And women moving beyond incarceration should be prepared to parent with confidence. Motherhood Beyond Bars serves so many of the needs of these women and their children… and their work just continues to grow and evolve.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• ⁠Amy’s inspiring life story and how she decided to become a doula; 
• The life-altering experience that Amy had as a doula when she saw the handcuffs of a pregnant incarcerated woman in the hospital;
• The story of how Motherhood Beyond Bars came to be and how Amy got involved;
• How the work of Motherhood Beyond Bars has grown and how it evolved through the COVID-19 pandemic; 
• And so much more.

For more information on Motherhood Beyond Bars, please visit their website. 

Follow Motherhood Beyond Bars on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 

And you can find more information about Motherhood Beyond Bars’ book “To the Earth and Back” here. Follow MBB to follow when the book is released and to be able to purchase it. And we will be sure to promote it when it’s out too, so if you’re following 1 Girl Revolution – you’ll be in the loop!