A newborn taken out of the custody of a Black Texas couple in late March is returning home.
The parents of the newborn, Mila Jackson, had been lobbying to regain custody of their child since the incident, which the couple described as traumatizing.
As CBS News reports, the Dallas County District Attorney’s office made the decision to reunite Mila with her parents late Wednesday leading into Thursday.
Three days after their daughter’s at-home birth with midwife Cheryl Edinbyrd, on March 24, the Jacksons took Mila in for a newborn checkup with their pediatrician of 12 years.
“Within that [March 24] visit, we were told ‘everything is good, she looks great, the only thing is she has jaundice,” Temecia Jackson said, which the National Health Service describes as a fairly common occurance in newborns.
But “[a] couple hours later, the pediatrician [Dr. Bhatt] called my phone and wanted us to admit Mila into the hospital,” Ms. Jackson said.
On March 25, Dr. Bhatt, the couples’ pediatrician, contacted the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), per a filed affidavit.
The family was then “traumatized” when they were “woken up by police banging at our door at 4:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m,” Ms. Jackson shared in a news conference.
She also noted that her husband and Mila’s father, Rodney Jackson was briefly arrested. “The constables chose to arrest my husband so that they could take his keys and use his keys to unlawfully enter my home and come and take my baby from me.”
The Afiya Center, a Texas reproductive and birth justice organization, had been representing the Jacksons during the ordeal.
“I’m just happy that justice prevailed and I am grateful for the Afiya Center and everyone involved in the return of this baby,” Edinbyrd told CBS News on Thursday. “I look forward to actually giving her her first postpartum visit and celebrating her being home with her parents.”
