A Washington state mom and dad are fighting to get their three kids back from child protective services after giving birth at home without hospital oversight.
Erica May Carey and Cleave Rengo, who consider themselves married in God’s eyes but never obtained a state marriage license, said they decided to go for the home birth and abstain from all prenatal medical care because of the Christian beliefs, King 5-TV in Seattle reported.
“I’ve done a lot of research about other women who have done it, and they said the spiritual experience was so much more wholesome,” Ms. Carey said, in the media outlet. “It was just us. We wanted to preserve that sanctity and sacredness in our birth.”
The couple had a 10-month-old son at the time Ms. Carey delivered twins — one girl, one boy.
Shortly after the birth, paramedics responding to a report on the birth showed up at the couple’s door and suggested they take their newborns to the hospital for checkups. The parents refused — and child protective services showed up the next day, and for several days after that, King 5-TV reported.
CPS then suggested the couple treat the older child’s eczema with steroid-based creams, rather than the probiotics, coconut oils and natural remedies they were already using. But the parents said no.
“It’s a very harsh treatment and can have very negative side effects,” Ms. Carey said, King 5-TV reported. “It can cause damage to bones, the muscular system and liver.”
And dad weighed in: “They wanted the authority in my household. I told them, ’I’m a Christian and God gave me the authority in my household,’ ” Mr. Rengo said, King 5-TV reported.
It was soon after that discussion that CPS removed all three children from the home.
The couple’s attorney called the taking of the children “unlawful, unconscionable and inexcusable,” and said that though the couple had experienced domestic issues prior to their kids’ birth, the CPS has no evidence of “clear and present danger” in the home and are rather trying to impose their own government standards of “proper parenting,” King 5-TV reported.
The Department of Health and Social Services, meanwhile, said the children were not removed because of the home births, but that confidentiality laws prevented them from explaining further.
In a statement, the agency said: “No police of Children’s Administration would allow a child to be taken due to a home birth. A home birth is not in any way a child safety risk factor in the view of Children’s Administration.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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