Vienna home offers help to unwed mothers

VIENNA — There’s a long gravel driveway spotted with chuckholes off Warren-Sharon Road just east of the Avalon Inn.

At the end of the drive is New Life Maternity Home, a one-story building that provides physical, emotional and spiritual support to unwed, pregnant teens and young women. That support continues after they give birth.

“We see the need so closely,” Theresa Seiders, New Life director, said of what she terms “the girls.”

Most residents range in age from 12 to 23, although residents have been as young as 11 and as old as 44.

Seiders noted that being unwed and pregnant isn’t the taboo it once was because it has become accepted in contemporary society.

“The shame of being an unwed mother is no long there,” Seiders said, pointing out that some schools have nurseries for babies and sometimes pregnant girls’ friends and classmates are pregnant as well.

“But not everybody has a support system,” Seiders said. “It’s a safe place to stay,” she added.

The home, which began operations in 1991, can accommodate nine residents, but three to five are using the facility at any given time.

It receives referrals from social agencies, homeless shelters, schools, hospitals, doctors and family and juvenile courts in Trumbull, Mahoning, Geauga and Portage counties, although there are no geographical restrictions. Some residents have come from as far away as Cincinnati and West Virginia.

For complete story, see Monday's Vindicator or www.vindy.com.