Make An
Impact Today

Support the Ostara Initiative’s mission to end the harms of incarceration for pregnant and parenting people. Your donation fuels direct services, research, and advocacy that transform systems and expand possibilities for families.

Choose Where You Want To Give

Support  Prison

Birth Programs

Where Most Needed
Support The Minnesota Prison Doula Project
Support The Alabama Prison Birth Project
Support The Oregon Prison Birth Project
Support The Wisconsin Prison Birth Project

  • "You only have 24 hours to hold your baby, to love your baby. It makes you not want to sleep. It makes you not want to eat. It makes you not want to take care of yourself because you want to use all those 48 hours to focus solely on your baby that you know you can't see."

    —Emma

  • "Separation and everything from my children, also not being able to do the motherly functionality of being with the baby. I missed all of it. So, basically I had a baby but he was a stranger. Not knowing who he was, not knowing his personality, not knowing what kind of baby he was because he was raised by my family."

    —Natalie

  • "I was shackled to the bed the whole time. If I had to go to the bathroom, one of the guards had to follow me. So there was really no privacy, no nothing. When I had my C-section, the guard actually had to come in with me too, to make sure nothing could happen."

    —Amanda

  • "In this time period you can't call your family member and tell them that you're in labor or that you've delivered or anything. You're having to [hope] somebody else will find me. It’s devastating to leave the hospital with your baby there and nobody there with them, not knowing for sure that someone would safely guide them. It's literally like your, your heart has been ripped out."

    —Megan

Thank You For

Your Support!

Hear from Ostara Initiative Executive Director, Erica Gerrity, on how your support creates change.