Julie Bilotta describes her ordeal as “a nightmare.”
The Cornwall, Ont. woman says she gave birth to her son while in an Ottawa jail cell, as guards allegedly ignored her cries for help.
“I thought my baby was going to die,” the new mother told CTV news in a phone call from jail Thursday afternoon.
Bilotta, 26, is serving a sentence in the Ottawa Carleton Detention Centre following a conviction on several fraud and drug charges, and breaking the conditions of her bail.
She began to have contractions and then went into labour on Sept. 29, her mother Kim Hurtubise says. Hurtubise claims that Bilotta's cries were ignored by guards, who eventually transferred her from a shared cell to a segregated cell.
Four hours later, when she was actually giving birth, guards responded to her screams and called paramedics. She was delivering one month ahead of schedule.
Complicating matters, Bilotta was having a breech birth, where the child comes out feet first, rather than head first.
“I knew he was coming out breach and that's not normal,” Bilotta said. “I could feel the blood coming out of me. I knew he was half up me, so I was worried about him not being able to breath.”
According to her mother, paramedics only arrived when the baby was half way out.
"By the time they got there the baby was hanging out of her, feet first, halfway out, and she delivered him herself," Hurtubise told CTV Ottawa.
The mother and baby boy were then rushed to hospital, where little Gionni Lee was monitored for nine days. He had been born one month ahead of schedule.
Bilotta was taken back to the jail a couple of days after the birth, and has been there ever since.
She hasn't been allowed to have contact with her son, who is being taken care of by Hurtubise, his grandmother.
"She needs to be with her baby, that's where she belongs," Hurtubise said. She added: "They've got to do their time like human beings, not treated like animals in a cage."
According to reports, Bilotta had been checked twice by nurses at the jail before giving birth. They determined she was in false labour.
Bilotta's lawyer is pushing to have her released, now that her personal circumstances have changed so dramatically.
The Elizabeth Fry Society, a group which advocates on behalf of female inmates, on Thursday called for an inquiry into health-care services provided in jail.
Bryonie Baxter, the director of the society, said the corrections system treats women as less than human, and change is needed.
Ontario's Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Madeleine Meilleur, said an internal investigation is being conducted.
She said pregnant inmates should expect to receive the same level of care as women in the general population.
As for Bilotta, she says she feels like she’s had everything taken away.
“It’s extremely hard, he's my first baby and he needs me as much as I need him,” she said. “And it’s very hard, I can't do anything about it.”
With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Claudia Cautillo
