Amy Ard: Motherhood Beyond Bars Helps Incarcerated Moms and Their Innocent Babies

Crazy Good Turns

Each year, thousands of women give birth while in jail or prison. What happens to them, and their babies?

Amy Ard had been working as a doula (a caregiver for labor and delivery) for decades when she saw a prisoner who was in the hospital to give birth. Amy also saw a set of handcuffs hanging from a gurney, which said so much about the start of that prisoner’s journey.

That image led her to drop everything and take up the cause of helping incarcerated mothers and mothers-to-be.

Amy moved home, switched careers, and founded a nonprofit called Motherhood Beyond Bars. Today Amy’s organization assists almost every infant born in the Georgia prison system.

Motherhood Beyond Bars provides support for those children, preparing them – and their mothers – for an eventual reunification and life together.

We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amy. Stay connected to what she and her organization are doing by visiting motherhoodbeyondbars.org.

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