About Us
Motherhood Beyond Bars (MBB) is the only organization in Georgia offering comprehensive support for incarcerated mothers, their infants and caregivers. We support and strengthen families with the goal of long term, healthy reunification and a permanent end to cycles of incarceration in families.
Our Mission
Motherhood Beyond Bars ensures a healthy start for infants born to incarcerated women by providing a network of comprehensive support for mothers and caregivers. We support and strengthen families with the goal of long-term, healthy reunification and a permanent end to cycles of incarceration in families.
Our Vision
Pregnancy and birth should be a time of transformation, not trauma. Every woman should have access to quality care and compassionate childbirth support. Every child born deserves to be bonded from birth and supported by a community of care. Women moving beyond prison should be prepared to parent with confidence.
Our Story
Motherhood Beyond Bars (MBB) began working inside Georgia prisons in 2013 with the support of the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) and a group of committed volunteers. Initially, all our programs took place inside women’s prisons, including childbirth education, postpartum support groups, baby showers, and prenatal yoga. Over time, the women in our groups began to share their heartbreak and concern for their children’s well-being and asked for our help supporting their infants and reuniting with their families when they left. Due to prison regulations set by the GDC, we were not permitted to have contact with family members, hindering our ability to develop a program. In 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all programs inside prisons, we planted the seeds for a new program of holistic family support, even if it meant we could no longer be in-person volunteers in the prison system.
Our Infant and Caregiver Program launched in January 2020, and we began enrolling infants in March. Since then, our program has enrolled almost every infant born in the Georgia prison system. We have forged new paths to support women and mothers inside prison, developed gender-responsive reentry services that center on family reunification and partnered with researchers on a groundbreaking study to better understand the impacts of incarceration on infants and families. MBB believes that “those closest to the problem are closest to the solutions” and actively seeks to be led by formerly incarcerated women and directly impacted families.
