New York City pays $610,000 to woman forced to give birth in HANDCUFFS after cops reluctantly removed her ankle shackles for the delivery and she had to give her first feed using one arm

New York City has agreed to pay a $610,000 settlement to a woman who was forced to give birth in handcuffs in February 2018.

The Bronx woman, listed as Jane Doe in her lawsuit, went into labor hours after she was arrested on February 7, 2018, and was forced to give birth still cuffed the following day. 

Shackling pregnant woman in police custody or prison was banned in New York state in 2009. The policy was further updated in 2015 to include a ban on the use of any restraints on pregnant women.

The woman, then 27, was arrested in Bronx County Family Court for violating an order of protection in a child custody dispute with her former partner, her attorney Katherine Rosenfeld said to CNN. 

Because she was 40 weeks pregnant at the time, she was taken from jail to New York's Montefiore Medical Center the following morning on February 8 with metal cuffs on her wrists and shackles on her feet that bound her legs together at the ankle. 

Once at the hospital, doctors asked officers to remove the restraints saying it could endanger the woman and child, according to the complaint. 

Doctors appealed to the police supervisor saying the shackles were dangerous to  the mother and child. Officers who responded saying it was NYPD policy to keep her shackled. 

'While she was in the NYPD's custody, Ms. Doe never struggled, resisted, or acted in any way that would even remotely support the use of restraints,' the complaint said. 

'Ms. Doe was terrified for herself and for her baby,' it adds. 

The doctors repeatedly protested and the officers removed her shackled minutes before she gave birth but then put the shackles back on after she delivered the child. 

She was forced to feed her baby with just one arm and while still shackled was taken from the hospital back to the precinct. 

'These events are seared in Ms. Doe's memory. She experiences nightmares and relives the trauma over and over,' the complaint added. 

'Jane Doe experienced a horrific violation of her rights by the NYPD during one of the most intimate moments in a woman’s life,' her attorney Rosenfeld said to USA Today. 

'The NYPD owes Ms. Doe a public apology for this incident, but the payment of this settlement and the revision of its policies will have to serve that function,' she added. 

Co-counsel Ashok Chandran praised Montefiore physicians for advocating for Jane Doe's right to remove the shackles during birth and throughout the lawsuit. 

'This settlement, which includes significant reform to the NYPD Patrol Guide, was only possible because our client insisted from day one that she wanted to ensure that what happened to her would never again happen to another woman in New York,' Chadran said.