The options for a pregnant woman vary, from choosing to keep the child to adoption or termination of the pregnancy. However, whichever she chooses, she needs support: mentally, physically and many times financially.

E.J. will receive help from a large family at home through the first months of motherhood, but she knows she is ultimately responsible for her child and its needs.

“It’s not like it’s a baby you can return,” she said. “It’s yours forever.”

Through classes at Triple L and Pregnancy Plus, E.J. is learning how to be a productive citizen as well as a mother to her newborn. She is learning how to budget for the baby’s needs and provide a nurturing home environment for her.

“I want to teach her not to make the mistakes I did,” she said. “I don’t want her to go through the same stuff I had to.”

Pregnancy Plus offers classes about social, economic and nutritional needs of a child, as well as support from nurses, doctors and specialists. Community Hospital also started a partnership with Anderson Community Schools during the fall semester to teach teenagers how to be good parents and providers.

Ruthie Smith, an LPN for Community, runs the program at the Ebbertt Education Center.

“It’s a collaboration we’ve set up for pregnant teens or teens who have already given birth,” said Katy Harrison Troxell, manager of marketing at Community. “It’s also available for guys who are caring for a child.” The classes are held every other week, and for the semester the teens learn about prenatal care, parenting resources and community resources.

“Ruthie has been there during several of the students’ births,” Harrison Troxell said. “So she serves not only as a mentor, but as a friend.”

Programs like these are important, especially for a teenager who does not have a dependable support network set up at home, said Diane Woodcock, director of clinical services at Triple L Ranch.

“Some of these girls, they have no role models,” Woodcock said. “They have drug-addicted parents, or the parents are working too much and not paying attention to the family. The child doesn’t know where to look for support.”

While Triple L has a partnership with Pregnancy Plus, it also works with Healthy Families of Madison County, which is housed at Saint John’s, for resources.

Healthy Families provides prenatal care and parenting classes for families who qualify for the program.

“It’s not a program for everybody,” said Marsha Harris, manager of the program. However, she said, facilitators from the group will help anybody get the resources they need to provide care for their child.

“We go out to the homes and talk to them about community resources,” Harris said. “Say, for example, they don’t have anything for a baby: no furniture, no transportation to get to the doctor’s appointment. Say they have no food at home right now or they don’t have insurance. We help them find what they need.”