Nine Months in the Bronx – The birth

In part four of Nine Months in the Bronx, Felicia gives birth to a baby boy. Like all new mothers she is both ecstatic and exhausted. But now she must deal with the fear her newborn could be taken away by the authorities within hours.

Felicia’s two older children are living with a relative and are under children's services supervision after the city agency investigated an incident involving their father. She has to prove she’s fit to be a mother and can provide a safe home for the newborn.

In the film, the BBC's Anna Bressanin follows Felicia throughout her pregnancy as she tries to navigate a child welfare system which critics argue puts unfair demands on poor and minority women.

For instance, the Administration for Children's Services in New York claims they do not routinely check hospital records to see if mothers are using drugs, but the mothers in the film say they have been drug tested during prenatal care visits or at the moment they gave birth.

This is a story about love, reproductive choices and what a mother in the Bronx has to sacrifice in order to keep her baby.

Edited by Anna Bressanin and Stephen Beard; animation by Ginevra Boni; audio post by Daniel Dzula.