When I got pregnant at 15, my family disowned me. They were real religious folks — Jehovah’s Witnesses. My church didn’t want to be bothered with me. And when everybody at school found out, they stopped being my friend. “Oh, she’s pregnant,” they’d whisper. “She’s pregnant.” So I hated being pregnant, and I hated children. My pregnancy was a shame.

The second time I was pregnant, I was in and out of jail. I was consistently arrested for selling drugs because that’s how I supplied my habit. Once, three weeks after giving birth, I was locked up in the Decatur Street annex of the Atlanta City Detention Center, which has since been closed. I told them at intake that I had just had a baby, but they did not come check on me or take me to medical so they could watch me. I was still bleeding, but I could hardly get any pads. Eventually, I had to use torn-up sheets.

For weeks, until I was bonded out, I cried and slept all day. I didn’t want to deal with the other ladies who were in the pod. I didn’t even want to deal with the reality of getting up and taking a shower. I was suffering postpartum depression, I had been on drugs, and I was locked in a room all day.

Today, I am just under 14 years sober, and I take care of my mental health. I’ve started an organization, Woman With a Plan, that helps connect girls and women returning home from prison to resources. I’m also a doula who is certified to work in prisons and jails.

I meet with my non-incarcerated clients in a clinic with baby stuff on the walls. In jail, I have to meet women in cold, gray concrete visiting rooms with heavy metal tables and plastic chairs.

To help women in jail, we have to be really creative and thoughtful. There are a lot of restrictions. Incarcerated women can’t have things that make their pregnancy easier, like pregnancy pillows and essential oils. We can’t go to their medical visits with them, but we follow up and ask them how the visits went. We talk about nutrition and how to work with the food they have. For example, the jails offer a snack between meals for pregnant women and diabetics. I have one client who says she is too tired to get up to receive the snack. But I encourage her to go because it may be a good substitute for a breakfast she doesn’t like.

Read the full article about pregnancy in prison by Tabatha Trammell, as told to Nicole Lewis at The Marshall Project.