[Missouri-l] Baby saga sparks many questions

[Chip Hailey]

Baby saga sparks many questions
MARY SANCHEZ COMMENTARY
Baby saga sparks many questions
Erika Johnson and Blake Sinnett's little daughter didn't come home from the hospital
with them after the late May birth in Independence. Both parents are blind.
Missouri put the baby into protective custody until Tuesday when the infant was finally
returned, and the case was abruptly dismissed.
The timing, days before the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act,
is a cruel irony and a well-timed reminder - blind people have long raised sighted
children.
Absolutely, there are challenges. And ignorance abounds. Advocates for the blind
have pushed for legislation to keep this sort of official meddling at bay elsewhere,
Maryland most recently.
Set assumptions aside. "There are alternative ways to do everything," noted Sheila
Wright, Kansas City chapter president of the National Federation of the Blind of
Missouri.
Even 20 years ago, the ADA didn't seek to outlaw archaic attitudes about who was
fit to be a parent. By then, the concerns were more to hiring, workplace issues and
accessibility.
So why did it take the Missouri Department of Social Services nearly two months to
reverse its initial decision?
A lawsuit is threatened. Add that to privacy laws, and it means little information
except the couple's side of the story is available.
They are relatively young, unmarried and uninsured. It is feasible that social workers
also noted the couple seem to have few people in their support network.
Youth and a lack of extended family nearby (the mother recently moved from out of
state) make life with a newborn more difficult.
But those things don't portend bad parenting.
Conceivably, some other red flag caused concern. But the fact that the baby is back
with her parents, their situation the same as it was two months ago, discounts that
possibility. The saga has the markings of administrative clumsiness.
A nurse was initially concerned that in her first attempt to suckle, the baby's nose
became covered by the mother's breast. The infant had trouble getting air. Alarming,
but shifting the baby solved it.
What's missing is how that incident triggered such extreme action, rather than instruction
on breastfeeding. Baby Mikaela was born during the noon hour, that first feeding
was attempted soon thereafter. By dinnertime, state officials were grilling the new
parents.
Did set-in-stone policy trip other actions, superseding applying common sense?
Wouldn't be the first time.
To reach Mary Sanchez, call 816-234-4752 or send e-mail to
msanchez at kcstar.com
.
Posted on Wed, Jul. 21, 2010 10:49 PM
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