Woman Forced to Undergo C-Section, Give Up Daughter Speaks Out: 'I Begged Them Not to Cut Me Open'
The woman forced to undergo a cesarean section and give her baby up for adoption by the British High Court is speaking out and telling her side of the story. As it turns out, she was allowed limited contact with the infant until she was nine months old and carried off to be formally adopted.
Alessandra Pacchieri, 35, who suffers from bipolar disorder made the decision to go off her medication for the safety of her unborn child. During a particularly stressful episode, she called the police to help her locate missing documents. When they showed up and learned of her mental history, they took her to a psychiatric hospital, where she was held and later ordered to undergo a C-section.
"I was freaking out," Pacchieri told the Daily Mail. "I had the feeling right away that they wanted to take my baby. I begged the doctors to let me go back to my country. I said I wanted to go to court to get it sorted out. The Essex social workers told me my daughter was going into care when she was born."
Pacchieri was held for over one month before being told she would be undergoing a C-section by order of the High Court.
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"I was crying," she said. "I would feel my baby kicking inside me. I begged them not to do the cesarean. The due date was four days later and there was no reason for me to have such an invasive operation with anesthetic. I wanted a natural birth. Once in there, I was pushed down onto a bed and a mask was put over my face. I felt as though I were suffocating. It was the last thing that I remember."
After the baby girl was born, Pacchieri came to and "wanted to see the baby arriving. I wanted to see her first minutes in the world, but I was so ill and they pushed me back on the bed. Someone handed me the baby and I began breast-feeding her. She was with me for 20 minutes or even half an hour. I was so happy to cuddle her. I thought I was going back to the mother and baby unit with her," but then the baby was taken away.
Soon after, Pacchieri was moved to the psychiatric unit and told that her baby girl had been placed in foster care. She was allowed to visit her daughter once a week for a half hour, but at nine months old, the girl was formally placed and all contact stopped. Even after appealing to the courts and having family members offer to take the little girl, she was still placed with a different family. Now Pacchieri is hoping that her story will gain popularity and encourage the courts to reconsider.
The adoption is not legal yet, meaning that Pacchieri has an opportunity to have her daughter returned if the courts rule in her favor.
"She is strong, she has work, she has a job, she has a house, she has a normal life," Stefano Oliva, Pacchieri's lawyer, told the Daily Mail. "There is absolutely no reason not to allow this woman to have a second chance."
