According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, nearly 3 in 10 girls will become pregnant before the age of 20. In 2012, 305,388 teens (ages 15-19) gave birth. Meanwhile, about 18% of women obtaining abortions are teenagers (i.e. about 200,000). Due to these high numbers, many people are rightly concerned about the need for education and resources for these young women. How do we prevent teen pregnancy from happening in the first place? How do we teach teens to be responsible in their relationships so that they may make healthy decisions (for their bodies and their hearts)? How do we provide resources that will support a teen in her decision to choose life for her child?
May is Teen Pregnancy Awareness Month. This month, students are encouraged to get involved in efforts to educate their peers. Parents, teachers, mentors and leaders are encouraged to seriously address the issues that our youth are challenged with in relationships with the opposite sex. We encourage you to focus on abstinence education and to teach your peers the importance of mutual respect in relationships. Hidden Choices challenges students and adults to truthfully talk about sex and what we can all do to address the issue of teen pregnancy and teen parenting. The choice is yours to say NO to early and unhealthy sex. Your help is needed TODAY to raise awareness on this critical issue!
According to History.com, celebrations of mothers and motherhood can be traced back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who held festivals in honor of the mother goddesses Rhea and Cybele, but the clearest modern precedent for Mother’s Day is the early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday.” Once a major tradition in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, this celebration fell on the fourth Sunday in Lent and was originally seen as a time when the faithful would return to their “mother church”—the main church in the vicinity of their home—for a special service. Over time the Mothering Sunday tradition shifted into a more secular holiday, and children would present their mothers with flowers and other tokens of appreciation. This custom eventually faded in popularity before merging with the American Mother’s Day in the 1930s and 1940s.
Did You Know?
More phone calls are made on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year. These holiday chats with Mom often cause phone traffic to spike by as much as 37 percent.
This week, Hidden Choices honors mother’s by saying “thank you” to life! Without mother’s, where would this world be? We celebrate motherhood and remember all who have given sacrificially, courageously and lovingly to the human race. I know that sounds so, well, trivial – but there is nothing trivial about mothers. They are, for the most part, the glue that holds everything together.
Today Hidden Choices honors the young, single mothers who are courageously choosing the “road less traveled” to give birth in humble, simple circumstances. They are young by the world’s standards, but most are making the hard adult choices not to abort. They are the heroes of Hidden Choices and choosing human dignity by focusing on the right choices of giving life to their children. Thank you for the making the “choice” to grow our human family! Happy Mother’s Day!
Success can be measured in many ways. The world would say that success is money, cars, glamour, good looks, big house and job, but countless young teen moms know that it takes hard work to juggle two to three jobs, provide quality and safe day care, ride mass transit to and from errands and find the right community services that support single parenting. They also say that success is measured in happiness, peace and finding love in all the right places. It is a formula for character building and success in every venue for life – from home life to the office, personal well being for health in body, soul and spirit. It is about inner beauty and strength to guide you through life. Even if you struggle through an unplanned pregnancy, success is within reach. What does success mean to you?
Find a passion that you love
Learn how to give and receive forgiveness
Be strengthened and have the courage to overcome the obstacles of life
Find good and valuable friendships
Gain confidence by dealing with problems. Don’t run away – retool your direction!
Now this short list will get you started on your successful story of life. Tell us how you have overcome! CLICK HERE
So, you all know the now famous CEO of Apple computers and Pixar Animation, Steve Jobs. Did you also know that he was adopted and rather than fail his freshman year in college he dropped out? Working in his garage led to success in a most unbelievable way. Read about what he had to say on success. READ MORE
The true story of Becky is about her unplanned pregnancy and how she helps other teen girls in crisis pregnancy choose life and deal with life with its pressures of school, friends, boyfriends and family. You will find blogs to just talk it out! See “Becky’s Story” READ MORE
Because of our own daughters unplanned pregnancy as a college freshman, we heard about a maternity home in Texas through a family friend. I did not know these residences existed, but her father and I wanted her to be in a safe environment where she could continue with her life out of the fishbowl of our town and continue with her college education as she planned for the birth of her child. It was a place we hoped she would be able to make the decision of adoption or choose a parenting plan. She would have to make the very adult decision at the young age of 19.
“Maternity group homes today are very different from the large institutional settings that held 30-50 women who went to have their babies in secret,” says Rivers Teske, Founder & President of Hidden Choices, an organization that has gathered information and resources for young women facing an unplanned pregnancy the last 16 years. In the 1990’s there was little or no information or connection to help a family facing a crisis pregnancy. Hidden Choices has identified over 350 maternity homes nationwide since then and provides a user friendly map to locate a maternity home in close proximity to major cities in 47 States .
What is a Maternity Home?
Many older homes and institutional type houses closed down after Roe v. Wade made abortion widely available. The maternity homes of old were heavily slanted towards adoption, whereas today’s mothers are more likely to enroll in a maternity home because they have chosen to parent, although many do place their babies with a loving adoptive family after researching and wisely looking at all the positive possibilities surrounding adoption.
In place of the large institutions, a variety of public and private financing for pregnant and parenting teens has arisen.
Today’s maternity group homes tend to be much smaller, typically housing between two and six clients at a time. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some simply house women for the duration of the pregnancy, while others allow mothers to continue living in the home after the baby is born. This is called the “after care program.” This after care service can be extremely successful on many levels. It is critical for a young mother to succeed in living a productive life with her children if she first learns healthy parenting skills. Good self esteem and confidence are critical components to wise parenting. Many young women come from broken and fatherless homes themselves, so breaking the cycle of poverty and lower income preparedness is essential in building a healthy life for self and child. Most homes are likely to offer heavily structured programs that may include life skills, high school or college coursework, delivery classes and adoption alternatives, career help and resume building from staff and corporate volunteers. Most homes offer free services and thrive on the generosity of individual donors. Hidden Choices has only heard of a handful of homes that charge “fee for service.”
Under the new rules of welfare reform in the 1990’s, pregnant teens ceased to be eligible for welfare benefits unless they were living with their families. So-called “second chance” or maternity homes were created to provide a stable and safe living environment for pregnant minors who couldn’t live with their families or who were kicked out of home by parents or teen boyfriends.
In 2003 Maternity Homes became eligible for funding through the Transitional Living Program for homeless youth. Approximately $10 million per year is set aside for maternity group homes although of the transitional living programs funded in 2004 and 2005, only 19 identified themselves as maternity group homes. Maternity homes are also eligible for funding through the Administration for Housing and Urban Development. Some homes receive support from state and local governments.
Private donations are critical sources of revenue for many homes, especially for the smaller religious maternity homes. Even homes that proudly refuse direct public funding apply for federal benefits for their clients, including food stamps and Medicaid.
Maternity group homes vary widely in terms of admission criteria. Most publicly-funded programs serve teenagers and homeless women. Many private religious maternity homes exclusively serve adults. Some programs explicitly state that they do not cater to women who are fleeing domestic violence or struggling with substance abuse. Drugs are not an option for a pregnancy.
Another aspect to expect. Residents have to commit in writing to carry their pregnancies to term.
Whatver flavor of home you are fortunate to find, it takes courage to say yes to “having” a baby. “Smooth sails,” I always say. There are thousands who support you and thank you for having your baby.
