‘I want my daughter back’, declares Italian mother forced to give up c-section baby

 
High Court: Lisa Driver, a mother of two in her 40s, suffered head injuries which left her with epilepsy
Reuters
5 December 2013

A mother who had to give up her baby after a forced caesarean today said: “I want my daughter back, I am suffering like an animal.”

The woman, an Italian, had her daughter taken into care by Essex County Council’s social services, which claimed it acted out of concern for the health of the mother and her baby. In October, the council obtained permission to put the child up for adoption.

The mother, 35, was today quoted in the Italian press saying that she had been misled by the authorities.

“They forced me to do the caesarean, without telling me anything,” she told La Repubblica. “The day of the delivery I thought they were moving me from one room to another, while I was saying I wanted to return to Italy. Then I was sedated. And when I woke up she was no longer there. They had taken her.”

She said: “I want my daughter back, I am suffering like an animal. The caesarean was imposed on me. I didn’t give my consent, either verbal or written, to the adoption of my daughter.”

The woman already has two daughters, aged four and 11, by two different American men and was previously married to one of them, reported Italian magazine Panorama.

Her latest pregnancy was by a Senegalese migrant in Italy, the magazine said.

The woman’s father, a restaurant owner in Tuscany, added: “My daughter is not mad, she is being treated for bipolar disorder. And they took her baby away against her will.”

Britain’s top family judge has demanded an explanation from social workers who made the decision.

Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division of the High Court, has taken the rare step of intervening to find out why the girl should not be reunited with her mother.

He ordered that he should decide on any further moves towards adoption. In a statement, Essex children’s services said a health trust had applied for the forced caesarean after telling social workers it had concerns over risks to the health of mother and baby.

It said Italian courts had been made aware of the case and that “social workers liaised extensively with the extended family”.

The woman had arrived in England last summer, while pregnant, for a training course at Stansted airport. During her stay she suffered an episode of ill health, and was sectioned.

A judge in the Court of Protection, the court that makes decisions for incapacitated people, ruled in a secret hearing in August 2012 that she should undergo the forced caesarean.

County court judges, again in secret hearings, backed social workers who immediately took the mother’s baby into care.

Essex County Council said it had “exhausted all other options”, before pursuing an adoption.

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