Contrary to the abortion-affirmative myth, pregnancy centers do care about babies (and mommas!) after a baby is born and do so deeply. Pregnancy help organizations aren’t only there to encourage life-affirming decisions, but to provide a woman with compassion and support and then connect her to further support. Yet one of the greatest challenges facing pregnancy centers can be how to help women understand and access their next steps in the community services - public and private - they may need as their pregnancy progresses and their baby grow.
Whether it’s housing, healthcare, addiction recovery, childcare or more, how can pregnancy centers most effectively refer women to ongoing care?
“The old model was: how many pieces of lit can we get into the client’s hands?” Savannah Marten, director of Bella Vita Network, explained, “She’s [already] drowning and I feel like I just handed her a cinder block, not a raft.”
Bella Vita Network is based in Ohio and is a Christian ministry “creating a world where every life is valued and every life knows its worth,” according to the organization’s website. Bella Vita has a pregnancy center, campus outreach program, and abortion healing center as outreach initiatives and also offers pregnancy center consulting nationally.
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Marten’s frustration with the standard referral process led her to look at how to help a woman see what God sees - outside of time - hope for her future. There could be a system where the barriers a mom faces weren’t all piled on her to fix on her own, she thought.
“What would it look like for us to just start meeting needs in the intake appointment versus giving her more work to do?” Marten asked.
Her team identified some of those biggest barriers faced by women in unplanned pregnancy: housing, healthcare, childcare, transportation, and economics. Marten realized no one organization can typically meet all the needs of these moms. But they didn’t have to.
“[We can create] a seamless integration for the mom between these [services and us],” she said. “A lot of these partnerships break down because we make moms jump through all these hoops. [Instead,] We wanted it to feel like they were never leaving, like they didn't know where our services ended and the next service started.”
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For healthcare needs, when the client is leaving the pregnancy center, she is leaving with her prenatal care appointment already booked with an OB willing to take Medicaid under her presumptive eligibility. Bella Vita also educates women about their full scope of benefits - for example, the fact that they’re covered via Medicaid for a free home blood pressure cuff - which can help them monitor for pregnancy complications.
For childcare needs, they noticed women face long waiting lists for childcare. Bella Vita staff began helping women apply for their local partner Mom’s House childcare slots immediately after the first ultrasound - moving up the list throughout their pregnancy.
Bella Vita’s partnership with Mom’s House grew as they both shared a new vision for a community partnership space - a building where multiple services benefiting families would be co-located together. This led to Laurie’s Place, where Bella Vita’s services and Mom’s House childcare facility are both permanent residents. With only one place to go, this convenient arrangement automatically helps with clients’ transportation needs.
Besides permanent services and offices, there’s space for community meetings, classes, and temporary specialty care providers. Laurie’s Place has already hosted a mental health provider, especially accessible to Bella Vita clients, who uses the space on a regular basis. Staff also can access therapy as needed more easily that way, preventing burnout. Laurie’s Place will soon host TED-talk style education for moms - including empowering encouragement for single mom entrepreneurs.
Additionally, the government office for Job and Family Services comes to explain government benefits to moms who many times didn’t even know they were eligible for help. When community partnerships lead to service providers that aren’t from Christian or pro-life organizations, Marten sees an opportunity to introduce partners to the life-saving work of the pregnancy center which they may not be familiar with. They can find much common ground in their shared commitment of helping women.
As Bella Vita, Mom’s House, and Laurie’s Place continue to foster partnerships and dream for the future, Marten encourages centers to give the ideas of co-location and direct referrals to community partners a fresh look, acknowledging that center services can look different based on their individual communities, all the while trusting in the Lord.
“This is the God who designed and gave the blueprint for the tabernacle … and we don't trust him to give us a blueprint and a design for ending abortion in our community?” Marten said. “You know, to me, that's the place to start.”
