When Stephanie Jorge reported to a federal jail in Brooklyn last year to begin a three-month sentence for bank larceny, she brightly announced that she was pregnant.

The correctional officers showed little interest. Later, on the occasions she began to hemorrhage, the officers would typically refuse to call an ambulance until they could summon three officers to take her to the hospital — apparently the required number to guard an inmate, even one pregnant and bleeding. That often took an hour or two, Ms. Jorge recalled.

At the hospital, doctors recommended bed rest and that she avoid exertion, a common directive for women with high-risk pregnancies. But Ms. Jorge said that was ignored the moment she was discharged back to the Metropolitan Detention Center, as Brooklyn’s federal jail is called.

Back inside, Ms. Jorge said she was made to strip, squat, and cough. A guard watched to see if contraband fell from her vagina. The bleeding worsened, she said.