Pilot project aiming to help homeless pregnant women accepts first two clients

A program to help homeless pregnant women has taken on its first clients ahead of opening a building to provide stable housing.

“There were women coming into emergency rooms in labour often having not accessed adequate prenatal care,” said Wendy Bouwman Oake, program manager of Pregnancy Pathways.

The three-year pilot project aims to address that gap and recently accepted its first two clients.

“They’re meeting with our team on a regular basis to determine what their goals are for them and their children,” Bouwman Oake said last week, noting up to 100 pregnant women per year are homeless in Edmonton.

The vast majority are Indigenous, she added.

The demand for the program will outweigh the number of spots, she said. The organization’s committee is in the process of acquiring a 12unit building with the help of Capital Region Housing Corp., which is providing temporary housing for current clients.

There were women coming into emergency rooms in labour often having not accessed adequate prenatal care.

Those 12 spots will be filled by referral from several social services agencies, including Métis Child and Family Services, Streetworks and Catholic Social Services.

Women may also need support for tackling addictions, said Bouwman Oake, who is also program director at referral agency Boyle McCauley Health Centre.

“We’re not saying to women, ‘You have to get clean in order to carry on with your pregnancy or in order to be a parent,’ ” she said, noting the program will give clients access to opioid replacement therapies that use substitute drugs such as methadone.

“Instead, it’s about meeting them where they’re at ... (and) using an empathetic and compassionate approach to help them get to where they want to be.”

Bouwman Oake said the program — which will offer clients six to 18 months of support — will help women develop parenting skills or explore options such as adoption and foster care. “The women coming into the program are going to have very complex needs,” she said.

Pregnancy Pathways will operate on an annual budget of about $430,000 in addition to fundraising — “lots of members of the community have been really supportive in helping us with baby items and with things to help moms during pregnancy, toiletries, maternity (clothes), comfort items.”

Bouwman Oake said she’s also received calls from social workers in correctional services who are hoping to find homes for pregnant women leaving custody.