Program reaches out to pregnant women

"Myth: Pregnancy is the happiest time in a woman's life."

Counselors at the Lutheran Family and Children's Services of Missouri often see the truth to that saying in counseling sessions with women enrolled in the WINGS (Women In Need Growing Stronger) program. The saying sits at the top of one of their pamphlets.

The program is a confidential service that counsels women who find themselves pregnant at difficult times in their lives. The program helps unmarried teens or young adults, financially unstable new mothers, later-life pregnancy cases or pregnant women who just need support.

"It's open to any woman with a pregnancy really," said Evelyn Beussink, a counselor with the WINGS program. "Sometimes it's that they need help in general."

She said women come to the program for a variety of reasons: financial support, counseling, alternative options to keeping the baby.

"Each one is different," Beussink said. She and the other WINGS counselors each keep a constant 25-30 women in their casebooks. WINGS provides services to women during pregnancy and up to a year after the child is born.

The counselors educate the mothers on healthy habits for pregnant women and adoption opportunities. Because WINGS is a faith-based organization, they provide alternatives to abortion and are a state-licensed adoption agency.

WINGS also points women to programs in the community that can help them financially. WINGS recently received a $30,000 grant from the Children's Trust Fund, Missouri's foundation for child abuse prevention.

Most of the money will go to operational costs, but a limited amount of funding can help mothers in financial need when it is an "emergency kind of situation," Beussink said. The mother must be in the WINGS program, and show an extreme need and have a plan to fix the problem.

One mother, who asked to remain anonymous, was directed to WINGS when she needed help paying some bills. She had a job, but the situation was unstable. She was three months pregnant and already had three children.

"I just was real down about being pregnant again," she said. "I was already struggling to make it with the first three.

"I just needed help."

When she contacted WINGS for financial help, she learned about the counseling it offers and enrolled. After building a relationship with the program, she received the small boost she needed to get back on her feet.

"When I first started talking to [the counselor], I was confused about what I wanted to do," she said. She was contemplating staying at work or going back to school; was fresh from an abusive relationship and having trouble developing her current relationship. With the help of WINGS counselors, she stayed at her job and opened up to her boyfriend, who is now her husband.

WINGS gave her a feeling of achievement. "All the goals that we did set, I accomplished them."

Beussink said watching the women realize their goals is one of her favorite aspects of the job.

"For people that are struggling, it's easy to get so frustrated and feel like you're never going to get there," she said. But helping them through that anxiety to accomplish goals is what she works for.

The same mother said just having someone to talk to about the situation was helpful. She has family in the area but felt she couldn't turn to them.

"It's easier to talk to someone that you don't know. I just didn't feel comfortable telling everybody my problems," she said.

The program -- which has been in Cape Girardeau for 20 years -- receives donations, but would not have been able to continue without the grant, according to Molly Strickland, director of the southeast office of LFCS.

She said WINGS seeks to make better parents by helping establish "a thoughtful plan for their child."

WINGS will also help relocate a mother and child in an abusive situation and makes house calls after the birth to check up on the conditions of the house and the family's health.

charris@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246