It is like your heart has been ripped out of your body – or, at least, that is how Krystal* describes the feeling of having a newborn taken into state care.
Warning: This story contains content that some readers may find distressing.
The First Nations mother would know.
She says several of her children were removed by South Australia’s Department for Child Protection (DCP), a government agency responsible for keeping kids safe from abuse and harm.
One time when Krystal gave birth, she says department workers knocked on the hospital delivery room door.
“My placenta was still attached when DCP came in,” she says.
“The midwives in there ushered DCP out and said: ‘No, she hasn’t even birthed her placenta out’.”
The next time Krystal fell pregnant, she refused to go anywhere near a hospital.
In the months leading up to birth, she says she did not leave her house and avoided antenatal care.
“I had a breached labour at home unassisted,” she says.
“I kept my baby there for three months and then the police kicked in the door and took my baby.”
Krystal says she was experiencing very difficult personal circumstances at the time.
“I ended up in a situation where I was homeless and in a DV relationship, really not looking after myself,” she says.
But despite all that has happened to her, she never stopped wanting to be a mum.
[Ed: It is easier for authorities to remove children from hapless women than do something effective about providing women with the necessary support needed to escape male violence.]