Safe Babies Healthy Families

A Mother's Story

At 22, I was a senior at Michigan State University with a 3.8 GPA. I was a star student in sociology and a McNair scholar who was seemingly well on my way to an elite PhD program. So why was it that just five years later, I was a clinically depressed, unemployed, a college dropout and soon-to-be single mother of twins? After a lifetime of experiencing more downs than ups, this was my lowest low. So I thought a lot about what brought me to that particular point in my life.

My childhood was filled with the devastation of abuse, neglect, bullying, poverty, divorce, and domestic violence. From a very early age, I found refuge from my home life at school. Not only was lunch my only decent meal of the day, but the classroom was the one place in my whole world where I felt confident—where I was happy. While my teachers probably knew my family was poor due to the condition of my clothes and inability to bring in the needed school supplies, I didn’t show any of the normal signs of abuse or neglect. I never had a sudden drop in grades or multiple absences. I never acted out, and there wasn’t a single detention or suspension on my record. As a young girl, I clung to the belief that education would be my ticket out of the life that I was born into. That was the one avenue available to me and I planned on using it.

I know that a person’s past, especially events from childhood, can have lingering effects for decades afterward. But I fooled myself into believing that I had escaped my past. When I went to my first prenatal appointment and found out I would be having twins, I struggled to believe that anything positive could come out of it. I just felt like I had hit rock-bottom. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to have children and give them a childhood a thousand times better than my own. By becoming a single mother, I was not off to a very good start.

That is the number one reason why I sought help from Safe Babies Healthy Families, and that is the number one reason I am grateful for all that I have received from the program. My case manager has developed a very personal, yet professional relationship with both my children and me. She met the babies less than 24 hours after they were born. We have been meeting regularly since then. I refuse to allow my children to carry the burden of my mistakes, and I am determined to stop the cycle of poverty, abuse, neglect, and mental health issues that plagued so many members of my family. Every day the Safe Babies Healthy Families’ program brings me closer to being the one to change my childrens’ would-be fate.

For more information on Safe Babies Healthy Families, please contact Nancy Major at nancym@eastersealswise.com or (414) 963-5905.