PORTFOLIO: Teenage motherhood, France: Teenagemotherhood_21_DAV2011_1301_D01_21

My son is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. Stacy was 16 and had been with her boyfriend for two years when she fell pregnant. She is against abortion so decided to keep the baby. Her boyfriend acknowledged paternity, but they have now broken up. Stacy is registered as a single mother and lives in Hellemmes with her son Vicenzo, in an apartment at the Dahlia Center for mothers and children run by the local health, social and education center (EPDSAE) and where the team provides support for young mothers after they have left hospital, reassuring them and developing a positive image of motherhood, in a multidisciplinary approach with specialists, e.g. in education and psychology. Stacy would like to do a training program and find work as a home help, but is worried about being separated from her son. Stacy knows it is difficult to be a single mother, but would never want to go back to her teenage life.

My son is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. Stacy was 16 and had been with her boyfriend for two years when she fell pregnant. She is against abortion so decided to keep the baby. Her boyfriend acknowledged paternity, but they have now broken up. Stacy is registered as a single mother and lives in Hellemmes with her son Vicenzo, in an apartment at the Dahlia Center for mothers and children run by the local health, social and education center (EPDSAE) and where the team provides support for young mothers after they have left hospital, reassuring them and developing a positive image of motherhood, in a multidisciplinary approach with specialists, e.g. in education and psychology. Stacy would like to do a training program and find work as a home help, but is worried about being separated from her son. Stacy knows it is difficult to be a single mother, but would never want to go back to her teenage life.