“They took him to the warming table. Then, they wrapped him up in a blanket and they gave him to my husband. The guilt I feel over not being able to comfort and bond with my son immediately after he was born affects me even to this day. I spent the first few weeks of his life crying every time I looked at him, feeling like I had let him down. I attribute that to being DENIED my son following his traumatizing birth. Their reason for not giving him to me was because they were "working on me"...code for manually removing my placenta after I had already been sewn up. I remember my mother asking the midwife if they could give my son to me so I could put him to the breast and allow the nipple stimulation to help my body expel the placenta on its own. The midwife responded 'no' saying 'there wasn't enough time', even though it had only been about 15 minutes. I still, to this day, don’t understand why they didn’t give him to me."

- Liza, New York City