Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Safe delivery – city sanctuary offers endangered mothers a place to raise their bundles of joy

byMark Bowling
16 February 2019 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 5 mins read
AA

Faith assistance: Pregnancy Crisis Inc supporter Fr Adrian Sharp with the newborn baby.

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Faith assistance: Pregnancy Crisis Inc supporter Fr Adrian Sharp with the newborn baby.

MOST expecting mothers plan for a rushed trip to the hospital to give birth, but Jane Arnott* knew her baby was already on its way.

The young mother, a resident at Brisbane’s Pregnancy Crisis safe house could feel the final contractions coming and cool-headed house supervisor, stepped in as an emergency midwife to make the delivery

“Yes, well it wasn’t expected,” Mrs Arnott said, cuddling her delightful newborn daughter.

“It all happened very quick compared to my first one. 

“Just glad she is healthy and all went well.”

Since it was set up in 2012, the Pregnancy Crisis safe house has helped many women birth their babies – but this was the first time there’s been an in-house delivery.

Mrs Arnott has been staying at the safe house since last September, with her two-year-old daughter, and has nothing but praise for the house supervisor – who has cared for them each step of the way through a difficult pregnancy.

“They are really lovely,” Mrs Arnott said.

“I got evicted from where I was… If it wasn’t for the safe house I probably would have ended up homeless.”

Brisbane Oratory in Formation moderator Fr Adrian Sharp, a long-time supporter of Pregnancy Crisis Incorporated, hailed the charity’s practical help offered to women under pressure to abort their unborn children.

Related Stories

From nothing to everything – five high-schoolers find life in the Catholic Church

Nuns protest Myanmar military coup

State’s largest pro-life group reflects on 50 years of service

PCI often takes in women who are distressed, abused and impoverished.

“The pressure on them (pregnant women) to abort is often very strong, and its often coupled with violence,” Fr Sharp said. 

“So the safe house is necessary for some women because they don’t have a choice. 

“They need to get out of the situation they are in so they can feel safe and so they can allow the children to be born.

The pro-life service operates 24-hours-a-day service, seven days a week, 365 days a year, supporting services to abused, impoverished, pregnant mothers.

Another guest at the PCI safe house, a refugee woman, arrived at the safe house one month ago, after fleeing from abuse where she was living.

She was heavily pregnant and gave birth in hospital a few days later.

“I find the safe house so helpful there – very supportive,” the refugee woman said.

Fr Sharp said the safe house took i some of the most vulnerable young mothers. 

“We are there doing our little bit,” he said.

While Queensland’s stiff new abortion laws made headlines in 2018 – decriminalising abortion and making it easier for mothers to end a young life, PCI’s house supervisor said the safe house had been “inundated with requests for help”.

“The house has been continuously at capacity for most of the last year,” she said.    

“Currently we have three babies, a toddler and their mum’s living in the house.  Our waiting list of women seeking to enter the house is growing.

“As with any charity, we are in desperate need of more volunteers. 

“I hope some readers of The Catholic Leader may be inspired to help us in this work of supporting pregnant women in crisis.”  

For offers to volunteer or donations Pregnancy Crisis can be contacted on 1300 777 777.

*To protect her identity, real name has not published. 

Study shows abortion and violence links

WOMEN are more than twice as likely to terminate a pregnancy if their partner is violent, and three times as likely if they have used illicit drugs in the past 12 months, a new study has found.

The research, published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, has led the authors to call for better training and resources to help clinicians identify and help women experiencing partner violence.

The researchers, from the University of Queensland, La Trobe University, Monash University and the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, used data from five surveys of more than 9000 Australian women collected as part of the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women’s Health to investigate what factors affect women having abortions at different stages of their reproductive life and whether this changed as they grew older.

The data showed 16 per cent of women in the study had an abortion by the last survey in 2009, when the average age of the women was 34. 

“Compared with women reporting no violence, women who reported recent partner violence in their 20s and in their 30s were more than twice as likely to terminate a pregnancy,” lead author Professor Angela Taft from La Trobe’s Judith Lumley Centre said.

“It is known that violence against women, especially violence from an intimate partner, is prevalent world-wide, particularly among women seeking abortions.”

Researchers examined a number of factors associated with abortion, including contraception use, violence, drug and alcohol use, marital status and the number of children women already had.

Women in their 20s and 30s who used illicit drugs in the previous 12 months were three times more likely to have abortions.

“Illicit drug use and violence independently and cumulatively have an effect on a woman’s ability to control her fertility,” the study said.

Previous Post

Patterns emerging in Plenary Council responses – laity, culture, youth among the hotspots

Next Post

Fire, floods and disaster – the call to be good stewards needed more than ever

Mark Bowling

Mark is the joint winner of the Australian Variety Club 2000 Heart Award for his radio news reporting in East Timor, and has also won a Walkley award, Australia’s most-respected journalism award. Mark is the author of ‘Running Amok’ that chronicles his time as a correspondent juggling news deadlines and the demands of being a husband and father. Mark is married with four children.

Related Posts

Features

From nothing to everything – five high-schoolers find life in the Catholic Church

4 April 2021 - Updated on 14 April 2021
News

Nuns protest Myanmar military coup

17 February 2021 - Updated on 16 March 2021
News

State’s largest pro-life group reflects on 50 years of service

7 December 2020
Next Post

Fire, floods and disaster – the call to be good stewards needed more than ever

Instagram and soft core porn: Has social media become our source of love and affirmation?

'Love of God' triumphs in Brigidine College, celebrating nine decades of life and learning

Popular News

  • March for Life set to attract big crowd opposed to abortion, euthanasia

    March for Life set to attract big crowd opposed to abortion, euthanasia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong Catholic media tycoon, sent to prison

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Pope prays for peace and reconciliation between Moscow and Kiev as military tensions rise

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Was the Sudarium of Oviedo really wrapped around Jesus’ head after his death?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • What is lust?

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

March for Life set to attract big crowd opposed to abortion, euthanasia
News

March for Life set to attract big crowd opposed to abortion, euthanasia

by Mark Bowling
19 April 2021
0

A CATHOLIC doctor, who will speak at this year’s Brisbane March for Life on Saturday May 8,...

Sudarium of Oviedo: Was it really used to cover the face of Jesus after his death?

Was the Sudarium of Oviedo really wrapped around Jesus’ head after his death?

19 April 2021
Pope prays for peace and reconciliation between Moscow and Kiev as military tensions rise

Pope prays for peace and reconciliation between Moscow and Kiev as military tensions rise

19 April 2021
Catholic media tycoon and philanthropist Jimmy Lai, now behind bars in Hong Kong. He was among nine activists found guilty of charges relating to pro-democracy demonstrations.

Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong Catholic media tycoon, sent to prison

19 April 2021
Flying buttresses are pictured on the exterior of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris Dec. 23, 2019. Two years after a fire destroyed much of the church's wooden structure, a fundraising group is urging people to sponsor a statue or gargoyle to help with reconstruction.

‘Sponsor a gargoyle’ to help rebuild Notre-Dame Cathedral

16 April 2021
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop
    Continue Shopping