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Pregnancy Center's Role Evolves

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By D'ANN LAWRENCE WHITE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 1, 2008

BRANDON - Watching her daughter's excitement mount as last Dec. 25 drew closer, Angela Vera of Brandon wished she could simply flip the page of the calendar over to January so she wouldn't have to deal with Christmas.

She couldn't imagine how she was going to explain to 9-year-old Chelsea that Santa Claus had missed their house this year.

"I've never felt so lost in my life," Vera said. "Here I was, a single mom with a 9-year-old and about to give birth. ... Plus, I had just gotten fired from my job as a nursing assistant. Things couldn't get much worse."

It was dejÀ vu. Vera had been down this road before - 10 years ago at age 20.

Back then, single and suspecting she was pregnant, Vera was referred to the nonprofit Brandon Care Pregnancy Center at 122 N. Moon Ave., Brandon, for a free pregnancy test. The center provides free counseling, classes and resources for women facing crisis pregnancies.

Vera's fears were confirmed. She was five months along.

"I didn't know what I was going to do," she said. "But the women at the center welcomed me with open arms. They taught me everything I needed to know about being a mom. I didn't even know how to put on a diaper. They helped me get ready and then helped me train for a career as a certified nursing assistant so I could get on my feet and support my baby. I was still coming here when Chelsea was 5 years old - just to talk to someone. They were my family."

However, she had lost touch with "family" at the center when she got involved in an unhealthy relationship. Now she dreaded returning to the center and admitting she had made a mistake.

Care Pregnancy counselor Karen Brooks said Vera need not have worried.

Working with a local church, they made sure she and Chelsea received a bountiful Christmas, complete with gifts, turkey and trimmings.

There were even a few gifts for baby Emily, who was expected to arrive in December but held off until January.

"I couldn't believe it. They were still here for me," Vera said. "They never made me feel guilty. They never judged me. Everyone needs people like that in their lives."

Stories such as Vera's are the reason for a recent decision by operators of the Brandon Care Pregnancy Center to change its name to LifeCare of Brandon, said executive director Cookie Gray.

"We felt as if LifeCare better reflected the broadening of the care that we're offering: intervention, prevention and restoration," she said. "We do so much more than the pregnancy tests we initially offered 20 years ago. We help people raise children, drawing many more fathers into the family, helping them understand their responsibilities and helping to break the cycle of single-parent homes. We help women heal from past relationships. We've evolved from the needs of the community in every area."

The Women of Worth class offered at LifeCare is a perfect example, Vera said.

"One of the reasons I was making bad choices was because of the way I felt about myself," Vera said. "I'd grown up with an alcoholic father. I'd been sexually molested at a young age and I had no self-worth. The pieces I needed to let me feel good about myself were gone. I couldn't feel whole. I couldn't feel fulfilled."

The class helps women to heal from bad past relationships and emphasizes sexual integrity, Brooks said.

Vera, 31, is volunteering to teach a class at LifeCare on Teaching, Loving and Caring in which moms and dads learn parenting skills. In January, Vera will begin classes to become a sonogram technician.

"Now I'm teaching my girls the things I've learned here," she said. "I'm teaching them to love themselves, to have faith and to believe in yourselves."

Reporter D'Ann Lawrence White can be reached at (813) 657-4524 or dlwhite@tampatrib.com.

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