(1) A state department facility that has in its custody a person who is capable of pregnancy shall:
(a) Train the facility's staff to ensure that a pregnant person receives safe and respectful treatment;
(b) Develop administrative policies to ensure a trauma-informed standard of care is integrated with current practices to promote the health and safety of a pregnant person;
(c) Provide each pregnant person, during the person's pregnancy and through the person's postpartum period, with access to:
(I) Perinatal health-care providers with perinatal experience; and
(II) Healthy foods and information on nutrition, recommended activity levels, safety measures, and supplies, including menstrual products as required in section 26-1-136.5, and breast pumps approved by the executive director or the executive director's designee;
(d) Provide counseling and treatment for pregnant people who have suffered from:
(I) A diagnosed behavioral, mental health, or substance use disorder;
(II) Trauma or violence, including domestic violence;
(III) Human immunodeficiency virus;
(IV) Sexual abuse;
(V) Pregnancy loss or infant loss; or
(VI) Chronic conditions;
(e) Provide evidence-based pregnancy and childbirth education, parenting support, and other relevant forms of health literacy;
(f) Develop administrative policies to identify and offer opportunities for postpartum persons to maintain contact with the person's newborn child to promote bonding, including enhanced visitation policies, access to facility nursery programs, and breastfeeding support, when appropriate;
(f.5) Develop administrative policies, including a system for human milk storage, to ensure a newborn can receive the human milk that the newborn's postpartum parent has pumped for the newborn's nourishment;
(g) In accordance with the requirements of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as amended, Pub.L. 104-191, transfer health records to community providers if a pregnant person exits the facility during the person's pregnancy or during the person's postpartum period;
(h) Connect a person exiting the facility during the person's pregnancy or postpartum period to community-based resources, such as referrals to health-care providers, substance use disorder treatment, and social services that address social determinants of maternal health;
(i) Establish partnerships with local public entities, private community entities, community-based organizations, Indian tribes and tribal organizations as defined in the federal Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, 25 U.S.C. sec. 5304, as amended, or urban Indian organizations as defined in the federal Indian Health Care Improvement Act, 25 U.S.C. sec. 1603, as amended; and
(j) Notwithstanding section 24-1-136 (11)(a)(I), by February 15, 2022, and by February 15 each year thereafter, report to the judiciary committees of the senate and house of representatives, or their successor committees, on the number of births by pregnant people who are in the custody of the facility, including the location of the births, that occurred in the prior calendar year.
Source: L. 2021: Entire section added, (SB 21-193), ch. 433, p. 2865, � 9, effective September 7. L. 2024: (1)(f.5) added, (HB 24-1459), ch. 426, p. 2916, � 5, effective June 5.
26-1-137. Persons committed to or placed in a department of human services facility - prohibition against the use of restraints on pregnant women. (1) As used in this section, facility staff means the staff of a state department facility or facility supervised by the executive director.
(2) Facility staff, in restraining a woman who is committed to or placed pursuant to this title or title 27, C.R.S., in a state department facility or a facility supervised by the executive director, shall use the least restrictive restraint necessary to ensure safety if the facility staff have actual knowledge or a reasonable belief that the woman is pregnant. The requirement that staff use the least restrictive restraints necessary to ensure safety shall continue during postpartum recovery and transport to or from a facility.
(3) (a) (I) Facility staff or medical staff shall not use restraints of any kind on a pregnant woman during labor and delivery of the child; except that staff may use restraints if:
(A) The medical staff determine that restraints are medically necessary for safe childbirth;
(B) The facility staff or medical staff determine that the woman presents an immediate and serious risk of harm to herself, to other patients, or to medical staff; or
(C) The facility staff determine that the woman poses a substantial risk of escape that cannot reasonably be reduced by the use of other existing means.
(II) Notwithstanding any provision of subparagraph (I) of this paragraph (a) to the contrary, under no circumstances shall staff use leg shackles or waist restraints on a pregnant woman during labor and delivery of the child, postpartum recovery while in a medical facility, or transport to or from a medical facility for childbirth.
(b) The facility or medical staff authorizing the use of restraints on a pregnant woman during labor or delivery of the child shall make a written record of the use of restraints, which record shall include, at a minimum, the type of restraint used, the circumstances that necessitated the use of the restraint, and the length of time the restraint was used. The state department shall retain the record for a minimum of five years and shall make the record available for public inspection with individually identifying information redacted from the record unless the woman who is the subject of the record gives prior written consent for the public release of the record. The written record of the use of restraint shall not constitute a medical record under state or federal law.
(4) After childbirth and upon return to a state department facility or a facility supervised by the executive director, the woman shall be entitled to have a member of the state department's medical staff present during any strip search.
(5) When a woman's pregnancy is determined, the facility staff shall inform a pregnant woman committed to or placed in a state department facility or a facility supervised by the executive director in writing in a language and in a manner understandable to the woman of the provisions of this section concerning the use of restraints and the presence of medical staff during a strip search.
(6) The executive director shall ensure that facility staff receive adequate training concerning the provisions of this section.
Source: L. 2010: Entire section added, (SB 10-193), ch. 312, p. 1467, � 4, effective January 1, 2011.