Young and single mothers often leave their home for a time to give birth and avoid psychological pressure from their family and community as a result of prejudices.
A woman in her 50s has turned her house into ‘a shelter’ for such single mothers for 12 years. Young pregnant girls come to stay in her house in their last months of pregnancy and only leave it months after birth when their children are able to return home.
Refusing to give her name, the middle-aged philanthropic woman, who lives on Thanh Da Peninsula, Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, said she has five children. Her ‘shelter’ or ‘pregnant house’ has helped hundreds of single young mothers like that.
Each of the girls brings a different story of life that they are too young to understand, she said.
Behavior of parents
A 14-year girl was taken to the ‘shelter’ by her parents since she hadn’t had a period for four months.
“My parents are busy all day. My boyfriend is my neighbor and four years older than me.
“We have had sex for three years, five or six times a week, but everything is okay.
“Once, my parents found out and hired a gangster to beat him close to death and take me here. I am sad about the story,” the young girl told the owner of the shelter.
So, she has had sex since she was a sixth grader aged 11 and was as familiar to it as a married woman, she noticed.
In another case, a girl aged 16 named Quyen had to come to the shelter when she was about to give birth and had been physically abused by her boyfriend.
Quyen left her family to stay with her boyfriend after her father betrayed her mother to chase after many other women.
In some cases, single mothers are so young that their mothers agree to take on the role as the mother of the baby, instead of grandmother, to shield the sad story from their family.
Whatever the reasons, a common point among the stories is the failure of the parents of the young and single mothers, especially in education and care of one another, said the owner of the shelter.
They don’t listen to their children and don’t talk with them openly, but just impose their ideas.
According to the owner, the average age of single mothers coming to her shelter has gotten younger and younger, with some only 12-14 years old.
Feelings of pity
Single mothers often call the shelter a ‘pregnant house’ because it always contains dozens of pregnant young girls waiting to give birth.
They take turns preparing meals and cleaning up the house.
Truc, 20, is one of the young single mothers at the house. She is from the northern province of Thai Binh. She fell in love with a man and only found out that he was married after she got pregnant.
However, Truc decided to keep the baby even though she was in college in Ho Chi Minh City. She earned money by working in her rented room for a garment unit to prepare for the birth of her child.
“When my child is fine, I will leave this shelter to make space for others.
“I can survive and protect my child. Nobody is able to affect him,” Truc said.
The natural instincts of a mother help her become tougher, although she had burst into tears after getting on a maternal surgery bed a couple of months before.
“I was so stupid. No one came to hold my hand to solace me when I was in pain on the operating bed,” she said.
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