From Deseret News archives:
A second FLDS mother gives birth in custody
Texas declines to say if child will become a ward of the state
The young woman gave birth to a boy around noon Monday.
"There was a birth," said Texas Department of Family and Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner. "That's all I can tell you for now."
She declined to say whether the child would immediately become a ward of the state.
Rod Parker, a Salt Lake City attorney acting as a spokesman for the FLDS Church, said Child Protective Services workers were trying to move the mother from the Austin shelter where she has been staying with her other children to a shelter in San Antonio.
"This has become an issue of winning at all costs for them," he said Monday.
Parker said a judge refused to move the woman — whom he identified as Louisa Jessop, 22 — scheduling a court hearing for this morning.
The birth of this child brings the number of FLDS children in state protective custody to 465. There are 26 young women whom Texas CPS believes are minors, but FLDS leaders insist they are adults.
On April 29, another FLDS mother in state custody, Pamela Jeffs, gave birth to a baby boy in San Marcos, Texas. That child was placed in state protective custody with his mother. Parker said at the time that Jeffs was 18, but CPS believes she is underage.
Guidelines
Meanwhile, FLDS members have created guidebooks for caretakers looking after the hundreds of children taken from the polygamous sect's YFZ Ranch.
The guidelines were published on the Web site, captivefldschildren.org, offering a glimpse at child-rearing within the polygamous sect. They read like a daily schedule, with an early morning wake-up time, prayers and religious tutoring and activities in the day.
"Children who are just learning to walk love to help wash doorknobs, benches, cupboards, etc.," said the guidelines for children ages 0-2 years.
Family prayer time is at 6 a.m., followed by breakfast, chores and general activities. For children in the first through third grades, morning classes are religious training.
"The training begins with song and prayer, then the principal of the school speaks, or calls on others to bear testimony. The children hear the truths written in the Bible and Book of Mormon," one said.
Instead of toys, the FLDS guide says, the children are taught to use their time wisely by helping in the garden, cracking nuts, feeding the chickens, visiting the grandmothers or helping with community projects.
"It is true, FLDS children are not perfect, yet they are teachable, and mothers delight in the privilege to raise up their children in light and truth," it said.
