By Deb Kroon
News Staff Writer
Could you be pregnant? Is the timing all wrong? Are you alone and scared? These are some of the questions the Helping Hand Pregnancy Center, located at 910 3rd Ave., Worthington, MN, would like to help you answer.
The main function of Helping Hand Pregnancy Center (HHPC) is to provide help to women of any age or ethnicity to deal with an unplanned pregnancy. The people who are involved with the HHPC are concerned, non-judgmental, loving people who want to help make the pregnancy as easy as possible. There are no angels at the Center, just people with a heart for the work, everyday people who care about you. Everything that happens or is talked about at the Helping Hands Pregnancy Center is totally confidental. No money is made from any of the services offered at the Center. They are absolutely free.
HHPC provides self-administered, lab-quality pregnancy tests and medically accurate information if the test is positive. Counselors are on hand to go over options available and to help with the pregnancy and parenting process. Right on the HHPC website there is a lot of information concerning a pregnancy. “We try to encourage our clients to carry the pregnancy through, not to use abortion as one of their options,” said Lee Tinklenberg, a board member of the Helping Hand Pregnancy Center. No matter what option is chosen, the Center is a place to calmly and quietly process the situation, to think things through. It is a place where people just listen. HHPC also provides counseling and advice for the men involved in the pregnancy. Support for the father is important too.
HHPC offers first child care classes to new mothers before the baby is born, The class deals with what to expect during the pregnancy as well as the issues that may come up. There are also classes on parenting skills for any parent, first time or not.
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