Lori and her boys at a visit. Source: www.mommyishere.com blog.

by Health Impact News/MedicalKidnap.com Staff

Los Angeles mother Lori Ibrahim recognizes that there is an inherent need in children to be with their mother, and she is broken-hearted that Child Protective Services is ignoring that fact. Her children were taken away from her after she had a positive drug screen after giving birth to her youngest son in July.

Her friends are asking how this can happen, since the only drugs that she was taking were medications that were properly prescribed by doctors.

Social workers came into her hospital room at Kaiser Permanente South Bay Medical Center 2 days after she gave birth and seized her newborn, and subsequently took her other son, who has since turned 5 years old.

See original story:

Medical Kidnapping in Los Angeles: 2 Day Old Infant Seized at Hospital From Mother

Baby Bruised in Foster Care, Mother Bullied over Photos

At a recent visit, Lori noticed bruises on her infant. She posted photos of the bruises on Facebook, but she was warned that she needed to take the pictures down. On the following day, Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) phoned to tell her that she was forbidden to take any further photos of her children. She was told that the consequences of taking photos would be that her visit with her sons would end. Even though the ban was lifted the following week, social workers still instructed her that she is not allowed to take “evidence photographs.”

The photos of the bruises were only up on Facebook for 30 minutes, but some of Lori’s friends took screenshots. One of her friends sent this to Health Impact News:

Unexplained bruises on Lori Ibrahim’s newborn photographed at visitation. Photo source: screenshot taken by one of Lori’s friends

Disturbing Video of Angry Foster Parent Running Off with Baby as Social Worker Looks On

Lori had a bizarre encounter with her baby’s foster mother on September 1. On that day, her visit had ended and the foster mother had arrived to take the baby to a doctor’s appointment. Lori reports that the only thing she said to the woman before the recorded events happened was:

What location are we going to?

Lori retains medical rights and was supposed to meet the foster mother and the baby at the appointment. The social worker can be heard attempting to smooth things over, but he did not stop the foster mother from getting into her car and driving off with someone else’s child while she was in a clearly agitated state.

Transcription of video recording:

Location: Curbside, Wateridge DCFS office – 5110 W. Goldleaf Circle, Los Angeles, CA 90056

Date: 09/01/16

Time: 12:12pm

Participants: foster parent, Bruce Nguyen (CSW – clinical social worker/ monitor), Lori Ibrahim (mother), also present: Youssef Ibrahim (infant)

FOSTER: (unintelligible) You the reason why the baby’s sick in the first place!

MR. NGUYEN: Lori, go ahead and go..go ahead and go…

MS. IBRAHIM: (to foster) I’m sorry, why are you saying this to me?

FOSTER: I’m not worried, we already know that this the last day I’ll have him, promise best believe that. You tell all that to the next foster parent.

MS. IBRAHIM: Why, why are you being hostile towards me?

FOSTER: There’s nothing wrong with this baby, honey, and anything that’s wrong with him, and anything wrong with him you created! (unintelligible) You know what?

MS. IBRAHIM: How did I create anything wrong with him?

FOSTER: You know what? His heart problem is your fault! You the one that did it!

MS. IBRAHIM: How? How did I – his heart? When does he have a heart –

MR. NGUYEN: …Lori, can you

FOSTER: Just be, just be at that location! Know is gone be a scene at the location, you know that! And know that you ain’t gone have nothing to say either! Cause I’m in control of this baby!

MR. NGUYEN:  We really don’t need that.

FOSTER: That’s what you need to understand! She think she running some shit!

MR. NGUYEN: She’s not, she’s not, she’s not running any-, she’s not…Lori, can you please go?

FOSTER: She ain’t running nothing here! She ain’t running nothing here! I’m in control of this baby, you need to understand!

MR. NGUYEN: Lori, no no recording, please…

FOSTER: Oh, go with the recording, honey! You ain’t got to worry! He won’t be at my house no more after today, promise you best believe that! Record that! All she is doing is creating, there’s nothing wrong with this baby!

MR. NGUYEN: Lori, I’ll speak to you in a second, thank you. (End of recording)

After all this, Lori Ibrahim was not able to meet the foster parent and her baby at the doctor’s office because the address the woman wrote on a piece of paper was the wrong address.

Lori has not discovered what the foster parent meant about a “heart problem.” That was the only time that she has heard any reference to a heart issue with her son. She has asked what was meant, but no one has given her an answer.

This incident was witnessed by a social worker and was reported to social services. However, it took almost 2 full weeks before anything was done. Youssef was moved out of the foster person’s home on September 13.

Attachment Parenting and Bonding is Broken by CPS

Before her children were taken, Lori made many parenting decisions that are consistent with attachment-style parenting. The former school teacher understood the vital importance of the maternal/child bond and she was devoted to her children. She and her older son Kian were very close, and he was securely attached to his mother – something which mental health experts say is vital to emotional well-being.

Now, her children don’t have their mother with them, and Lori is grieving for their loss. Youssef was only able to have his first 2 days of life before being taken away from his mother. His big brother Kian has always been a very happy, secure child. After just 2 months away from his mother, he is traumatized and is clearly not the same.

Source: Ibrahim family

From “Heaven to Hell” Visits with Children

Health Impact News spoke with Lori after a recent visit with her children. She put into words what many parents have expressed about the grief of being separated from their children and the joy of spending time with them at visits, followed by the heartbreak of having to say goodbye at the end of the visits.

It’s like being admitted through the pearly gates, and then someone opens a trap door and drops you into the pits of hell. It’s so unnatural and so wrong to hand your babies to a stranger and walk away from them.

All of this suffering and the harm being done to Lori’s children is because she tested positive for medications that doctors prescribed to her. She has never been accused of taking illegal drugs, and she was taking the medications as properly prescribed by doctors for fibroid pain and nausea. The doctors at the hospital knew this, and DCFS knew this.

So why are children being separated from their mother? There is ample scientific evidence of the importance of the maternal/child bond, as well as numerous studies on the harm that separation of mother and child has on the development of the child. Why is this mother being forced to fight for her own children when she has done nothing wrong?

Lori and her firstborn. Being a devoted mother was everything to her. Source: Ibrahim family.

Like so many other parents whose stories we have covered at Health Impact News, Lori doesn’t understand how this is happening to her family:

This is disgusting, and neither of my children were ever abused or neglected in any way when they were in my care, but they have been since falling under the state’s custody.

How have we gotten to a place where pregnant women risk losing their children simply for following their doctor’s advice and taking the medications that he has prescribed to her? What is next? A law requiring that pregnant women are forbidden to take any kind of medication at all?

Lori has a family court trial in Los Angeles on Wednesday, October 5. Commissioner Stephen Marpet will be presiding. She is hopeful that the evidence will clear her. But nothing will ever make up for the time that she and her children have missed together.

Supporters of the family have put up a blog to follow the progress of this story:

MommyIsHere.com