Offering help to pregnant women

 
By Susan Bailey |  CFP Correspondent
 
Problem Pregnancy of Worcester Inc. is a 35-year-old volunteer organization supported by donations. The dedicated women there who provide counseling for pregnant women considering an abortion understand the critical life-and-death nature of their work and know it cannot be done without total dependence on God.
“I would say all of our volunteers see themselves as pencils in God’s hand, to paraphrase Mother Teresa,” said Sandra Kucharski, counselor and longtime volunteer. “We are only instruments. God works through us. I came into the job believing this in some small way, and after a few counseling sessions you begin to truly experience it. It is very rewarding work on a number of levels. God always gives more than he takes.”
 Luanne Daly, a volunteer for 20 years, remembers when she decided to answer the call after reading a Problem Pregnancy newsletter.
“They were looking for volunteers and I just felt moved, like this is something that I’m supposed to be doing, something I need to do, something I have to do,” she said. 
In the beginning she found it emotionally overwhelming to counsel women who were considering abortions.
“When I first started, it was really hard for me,” she said. “I cried every single day on my ride home.
“What happened to me and to most of us is that you just kind of get thrown in at one point and you sink or swim,” she continued. “Even 20 years later I never go in and meet with somebody feeling confident, like I know all the answers, because I don’t.”
She praised the supportive spirit of all the volunteers.
“Right now we have a wonderful team – we are all from different walks of life,” she said. “When we are seeing a client we know we are never alone. We ask each other for help and guidance. We kind of cover each other’s nakedness.”
Corinn Dahm, a volunteer since 2011, recalls praying with a deacon outside the Planned Parenthood facility, where abortions are performed. She was invited to tour the nearby Problem Pregnancy center.
Some time after training to be a counselor and to operate the ultrasound equipment, she was confronted with her first abortion-minded client.
“I was training, and every client I would get was either not pregnant, or was pregnant and wanted her baby, which is kind of unusual in our center,” she said. “I did not have an abortion-minded client for quite some time. Then, boom! It hit me hard; it was a sad, sad situation.”
She echoed Mrs. Daly’s feelings about the volunteers being a community.
“Every one of our counselors says the same thing: we have a total insecurity the whole time, but somehow the Holy Spirit works through you,” she said. “It’s the only way that you can be successful. It’s not any one of us, and that’s why we work so well together. We talk a lot about, and support each other in, our faith.”
Counseling a woman who comes in for help is about getting to know her as an individual.
“At the point of initial contact, we try to determine what the woman needs,” said Miss Kucharski. “Does she want a pregnancy test? Is she seeking an abortion? Why is she seeking an abortion? Does she just need someone to talk things over with? Is she pregnant and in need of assistance?
“When the woman comes to us, she is greeted, and seen by a counselor,” she said. “Then, in a confidential, non-judgmental setting, we obtain information that would help us understand who she is as a person.”
In many cases, a woman is offered an ultrasound. Mrs. Dahm and Kathy Lake are trained to perform the procedure. The purpose is to establish a viable pregnancy by picking up the baby’s heartbeat. However, there can be problems with using the ultrasound.
“It is not always the magic bullet that people might think it is,” Mrs. Dahm said. “Girls these days find out so early when they are pregnant, and ultrasounds don’t usually pick up a heartbeat until six weeks. So a lot of girls come to us four or five weeks pregnant and we can’t really determine whether or not they have a viable pregnancy.
“At that point a lot of girls are anxious – they want to get it over with,” she said. “If we can’t give them a determination whether they have a viable pregnancy or not, we ask them to come back in a week or two just to see if there is any progress. Half the girls come back, half don’t. We suspect that some girls go and have abortions without knowing whether the pregnancy was viable. That’s sad.”
But the Problem Pregnancy volunteers expressed confidence in the many options they offer to their clients, which, they said, Planned Parenthood does not offer, including diapers and other needed supplies for those who decide to keep their babies.
This is why Problem Pregnancy has practiced an unusual strategy over its 35-year history, to make sure women know that the center exists. That strategy has been to follow Planned Parenthood around the city.
“When PPW first started we were down on Main Street and we were in the same building as them,” said Mrs. Daly. “Then they moved over to Lincoln Street; we followed them and got a building behind them. Then we heard they were moving over to Pleasant Street, so we ended up getting our building before them.”
Mrs. Daly shared a story summing up the successful work of Problem Pregnancy: “I had this one couple several years ago – they had five children and the husband was screaming and yelling at me. I said everything I thought I could. They left and I said, ‘That’s it; I lost them.’ I prayed about it.
“Then, nine months later, I was sitting out front and a man came up to the desk and he had a brand new baby in a carrier. He remembered me and he said, ‘I was here nine months ago and I was really mean to you,’ and he started crying. It was so moving. And he said, ‘See this little one here? We were going to kill her and she is the biggest blessing. You were the first stop from the hospital, I had to stop here.’”
Mrs. Daly concluded, “Kathy (Lake) was there with me that day and the two of us were all choked up.”
 
- Those seeking more information, or those who are interested in joining the volunteers, can visit www.problempregnancy.org.