Inmate who gave birth alone in jail cell claims medical staff didn’t believe she was in labor

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Playing with a mountain of toys with her soon-to-be 1-year-old son, her 5-year-old daughter hanging on her shoulder, sober for 355 days, Alyssia Moulton can hardly believe where she was just a year ago.

“I was in a bad state at that point,” Moulton said.

On Aug. 19, 2023, she was sitting in the backseat of a police car, high on drugs, charged with burglary, preparing to be booked in the Montgomery County Jail.

She knew she was in real trouble.

What she didn’t know is that she was also pregnant.

Eight days later, she would make national headlines, when she gave birth, alone, in the toilet of her cell.

Moulton is now suing the medical provider for the Montgomery County Jail, Southern Health Partners, Inc., claiming they were indifferent to her medical situation.

“No one should have a baby in a jail cell. Especially when I made them very much aware, ‘Hey, I’m having a baby, let’s get to a hospital,’” Moulton said.

Giving birth inside a cell

After confirming her pregnancy with a test at the jail, she said she asked for an ultrasound.

“Really see how far along I was is what I wanted to know. Because I was concerned. See if he was healthy, because of the lifestyle I’d led up until that point,” Moulton said.

“You obviously were using drugs at the time. You obviously had committed a crime. How much responsibility you take?” asked WSMV4 Investigates.

“I should not have been living the lifestyle I was living. People make mistakes,” Moulton said.

Moulton claims in her lawsuit that the medical staff at the jail never took her to see a doctor, provided pre-natal care or gave her an ultrasound.

Moulton was also detoxing from drug addiction and claims she was never given any medication to help with withdrawal.

“I cried to the nurses. There were times when I cried, one of the nurses held my hand and said you’ll get through this,” Moulton said.

The lawsuit includes nurses’ notes, one of which claimed Moulton refused detox medication. Moulton disputes that.

She said with her first pregnancy, she barely showed, even when she was about to deliver. So when she said she started experiencing labor pains on Aug. 27, 2023, she asked to go to the hospital.

A nurse’s note, included in the lawsuit, state that no contractions could be felt on Moulton’s stomach.

“She said, ‘He’s up too high, you’re too small, you’re not having contractions’. Looked me right in the eye and said you’re not having contractions,” Moulton said.

Moulton said when medical staff went down to the infirmary to speak with a doctor, she said she went to the toilet in her cell.

After pushing, she said she could feel the hair from the baby and delivered her son in the toilet.

“He was in the toilet for a few seconds, got him out, I thought he was dead at first,” Moulton said.

Moulton said she then called for a guard and was at that point taken to the hospital.

“This lawsuit shines a light on this often-overlooked social issue and raises awareness of the civil rights of pregnant inmates,” said Chris Smith, Moulton’s attorney.

“No other women should have to go through that, ever again,” Moulton said.

For two days, WSMV4 Investigates has reached out to Southern Health Partners for comment and to ask for a copy of their medical procedure for the treatment of pregnant inmates, but we have not heard back.

A spokesman for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said because of the pending lawsuit, they had no comment, although they are not named in the suit.

After leaving jail, Moulton said she went to rehab and lived in a sober living house. She’s now working and living with her mother while caring for her daughter and son.

A son, she knows, who will one day ask about the day he was born.

“I still have nightmares about it. And like I told you, it’s on his birth certificate where he was born, i really hate that for him. That’s his place of birth, the Montgomery County jail,” Moulton said.

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