My birth mother was obliged to keep me with her in the Bethany Home on Wellington Street for six weeks after I had been born. She had signed me over to my parents long before, but she still had to nurse and nurture me for six long weeks before handing me over.
How horrible this must have been for her.
I thought of this today, listening to CBC's coverage of the fact that BC has cancelled its mother/baby prison program. Naturally, there are two sides to the issue: one "expert" said it was a good thing they have cancelled the program because it would protect the child from the harmful lifestyle that landed the mother in prison in the first place; the other maintained that the mother/baby bonding that took place in prison was critical to the child's emotional well-being for the rest of its life.
Hogwash. I come down on the side of the guy who thought it a bad idea for criminal mothers to keep their babies. Just as it would have been a bad idea for my birth mother to have raised me, I think it's a bad idea for children to be raised in prison. As to my emotional well-being, it's fine thank you in spite of being wrenched from my birth mother after six weeks. The mother who raised me is the only one I know.
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