Giving birth is no small feat, especially if you’re a high risk pregnancy and chained to your hospital bed. That’s what one former prisoner said she had to go through.

Kacey Rucker, who is now free and a mother to her daughter Ava’Joi, was pregnant during her time in prison. She was taken to the hospital, and restrained to her bed. The Department of Corrections usually eases up on inmates during this time period. Officers have to get a document, confirming the inmate is in active labor.

But that’s not how it all went down in Rucker’s case. “Active labor” started before the paperwork could be finished.

“Once my water broke, it all happened in less than five minute, that I turned around and I had her [Ava’Joi],” Rucker tells our news gathering partners at WISH-TV, “but that entire time, I was still chained to my bed.”

Rucker says being restrained made the experience all the more challenging. She was considered a high risk pregnancy, due to her age at the time and her anemia. Making a run for it while in the hospital was not on Rucker’s to-do list.

Rucker tells WISH-TV, “it’s almost medically impossible, after having a baby, you just delivered another human being, to get up and run away from two armed officers.”

A new bill at the Indiana Statehouse would limit restraints on pregnant inmates. The restraints would have to be the absolute least restrictive necessary, starting at the beginning of the second trimester. If an inmate is in labor, delivery, or the immediate postpartum period, then that means no restraints at all. Of course, if an inmate is a threat to themselves or others, then restraints may be necessary. The rules would apply to both jails and prisons.

“It’s not just about me, it’s not just about Ava,” Rucker tells WISH-TV, “there are other mothers and other babies that this bill is going to affect greatly. It’s going to make a big difference.”

The bill passed the House unanimously at the end of January. This week, a state Senate committee unanimously approved the bill. Some things were changed, which means the bill would need to go back to the House.