It would be months before I entered the home for teenagers mothers located in West Hartford, CT. I spent that time working on myself.
I turned fifteen within weeks of finding out I was pregnant. I wasn't only facing motherhood, I was also facing the common dilemmas of being a teenager. I had to make good choices on a consistent basis. Temptations were everywhere along with the usual high school peer pressure. I continued to date. I went to dances, I spent nights at my friends' houses. I was there, I was in it all and yet somehow I wasn't. My heart and mind were always with the baby growing inside me.
Like all teenagers I was offered cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs..but unlike most teens, I had a "valid" reason to say no.. I was pregnant, at least valid in eyes of my peers. Of course, I could have made a decision to say yes like so many others.
I remember sitting on the floor at a house party. I was fairly big in my pregnancy. The couple who provided the alcohol had to be in their thirties. The woman was insistent it was perfectly safe to drink just wine coolers! "For goodness sakes she drank with all her pregnancies and all her child were fine!" ( mind you she didn't have custody of any of them)..and I remember having to stop, decide if I should listen to this adult almost giving me an order to drink or step back and stick to what I felt in my heart was right for my baby. I knew better. I'd read enough, plus I'd become somewhat religious at that point. Deciding my baby was most certainly going to be a little boy, I'd name him something biblical, Gabriel Jacob. I knew God would frown on drinking. I went home.
That was a cross road. It was a test, and looking back I passed.
What are your views on drinking while pregnant?
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