90% of women who come to the emergency shelter have not had prenatal care, regardless of whether they are teenagers or of any age. Some have a history of substance abuse, medication use, or mental health issues. When the pregnancy is advanced, psychiatrists will not accept them until after delivery because the medication can affect the unborn child. There are both first-time pregnancies and non-first-time pregnancies, with issues of self-care. Continuing the pregnancy is therefore more challenging than terminating it. “Terminating a pregnancy is like a hairdresser cutting hair; whether it’s beautiful or not, once it’s cut, it’s done. But continuing a pregnancy is like tailoring clothes; if you don’t like it, you have to start over…”
The emergency shelter works with children who are unprepared for pregnancy and with parents and guardians, but not with men because they are hard to find. We work on rehabilitation and care from before birth. Pregnancy is like an accident in life that causes a stumble. Many people don’t realize this is pregnancy. “I don’t know what pregnancy is like. All I know is that I don’t know what’s inside my belly, it’s moving around in there.”
We take care of mental health issues and have courses to prepare for childbirth. After childbirth, there are courses on caring for the mother and child, including the mother’s physical care. The infant also needs care, from bathing and dressing to preparing food for the little one, etc.
For guardians, there is a course on the path to parenthood. 90% of families are broken families. Some children live with grandparents, uncles, aunts, making it difficult to invite guardians. It has to be on Sundays or the end of the month because they don’t have travel expenses. We solve this by providing at least 300 baht for travel/compensation, but it can only be done once a year due to limited budget. Eating together is almost impossible. The result of the family camp in 2017 showed that out of 60 adoptions, only 2 were teenagers.
Regarding the provision of welfare in the public sector, we want it to be universal welfare that every child has the right to receive. In the case of teenagers, they are not ready to raise a child alone and need support. However, the families we encounter are grassroots families at the bottom. If a family is ready to take care of a child, we support with diapers and milk because these are high expenses. Support is provided for 2 years, but the brand cannot be chosen as these are donations received by the shelter.
Source: Khun Natthiya Thongsriket, Director of Social Welfare, Association for the Promotion of the Status of Women, Don Mueang Emergency Shelter. Meeting on “Developing Guidelines for Assistance, Service Provision, and Protection of Rights for Teenagers and Women with Unplanned Pregnancies” by the Project for Developing a Network of Safe and Friendly Alternative Services for Teenagers and Women with Unplanned Pregnancies.