Alabama jail staff didn’t help when she went into labor — other inmates did, lawsuit says

Tiffany McElroy in downtown Dothan, Ala.Charity Rachelle for NBC NewsFIRST ON NBC NEWSU.S. newsAlabama jail staff didn’t help when she went into labor — other inmates did, lawsuit saysIn a state with a long history of arresting pregnant women, one mom in custody says she was left to fend for herself.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00ShareAdd NBC News to GoogleMay 13, 2026, 5:02 AM EDTBy Bracey Harris and Abigail BrooksThree days after Tiffany McElroy was taken to an Alabama jail just north of the Florida state line, she felt her water break.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Her baby was coming several weeks early, and McElroy, 26, would later learn she was experiencing a pregnancy complication that could deteriorate into sepsis. She told a guard that her water had broken, expecting her to call an ambulance or take her to a hospital.Instead, according to a federal lawsuit filed in the Middle District of Alabama, another guard who checked on her that morning in May 2024 accused her of urinating on herself and told her to go back to her cell. Over the next 24 hours, the complaint alleges, McElroy was at the mercy of jail staff members who failed to call 911 as other inmates beat their cell windows and tables, begging for help.Health professionals, according to the lawsuit, provided McElroy with only a diaper and Tylenol as pain racked her body and she feared for her baby. “Just — it was such a strong sense of fear,” McElroy, now 28, said in an interview with NBC News. “It just overtook me, like I was completely out of it.” A fellow inmate ultimately helped McElroy as she pushed out a baby girl who wasn’t breathing, according to the lawsuit. Two women in her pod, the complaint says, worked to resuscitate the newborn, sucking mucus from her mouth and rubbing her until she began to cry. McElroy alleges in a lawsuit that after she went into labor at the Houston County Jail in Dothan, staff...