Since a miscarriage of a pre-born child can be devastating to potential mothers, the Informed Choices Pregnancy Centre now offers a new perinatal service to support grieving women.
The centre is the only organization in Moose Jaw and throughout the area — all the way to Swift Current in fact — to offer this type of support, explained executive director Sara Barr. This service is a peer-supported program, where women who have experienced a perinatal loss — miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death — volunteer to help other women in a similar position.
“They can interact with these women because they have these same loss experiences. It’s very special,” Barr added.
Barr spoke about the program — and other services — during the annual banquet for Informed Choices Pregnancy Centre, held Nov. 18 at Victory Church. Clients who have used the centre’s various services gave testimonies of their experiences, volunteers spoke about their roles, and Pastor Mike Dueck discussed the importance of a pregnancy centre in a community.
Besides the perinatal service, the centre also offers free pregnancy tests and free baby supplies, Barr continued.
The centre can make referrals so that, if a woman doesn’t like her current living situation, the organization can help her send an application to Moose Jaw Housing Authority. Women can be referred to Transition House if they are in an abusive relationship, while low-income women can be placed on the Good Food Box program.
There is also a 24/7 support line — 1-306-690-8462 — women can call if they are in distress, while the organization is also on Facebook and Instagram.
All of these initiatives are meant to help women who struggle in life.
One program to help new mothers is called Earn While You Learn.
“We educate a lot of these mothers (who) are in situations (where) they find themselves unexpectedly pregnant and scared,” Barr explained. “So we step in a mothering role and do our best to support them and remove fear and empower them.”
The Earn While You Learn program provides 40 different lessons to expecting and new mothers, such as fetal development, parenting, potty training and car seat safety. As the women spend time at the centre and take the courses, they earn “baby bucks” that can be spent at the centre’s store on brand-new baby supplies.
The centre also offers a service called options counselling, which is a confidential and safe place where women can talk about adoption, parenting, or abortion, and the pros and cons of each, in a non-judgmental atmosphere, Barr said.
“We are a Christian ministry. However, there is no personal agenda that occurs. It’s a very non-judgmental space,” she added. “We are mainly financially supported by the churches in Moose Jaw. We do our best to show the love of Jesus through our actions — how we love these women (and) how we treat them is most important to us.”
Informed Choices Pregnancy Centre also runs a Baby Bottle Campaign at the churches from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day. This is where bottles with donation forms are handed out. People then have a month to raise funds and can stick into the bottle a cheque or coins; the bottle is then returned to the centre.
The fall banquet and the bottle campaign are the two main fundraisers that keep the centre afloat throughout the year.
The organization supports about 25 women and their families each year, Barr added. While that might not sound like much, the centre journeys with these women for years to help them heal.
Visit http://icpcmoosejaw.ca/index.html for more information.
