‘The calm in the storm’

Bedford pregnancy care center strives for women in need to ‘know that there’s hope’

April Haskett, executive director of Hope Resource Center in Bedford, points out the cabinet of free items in the pregnancy care center’s welcoming lobby on a day when those served by the organization were invited to come to the facility for free family Christmas photo shoots on Nov. 23, 2022. (Photo by Natalie Hoefer)

By Natalie Hoefer

BEDFORD—It’s the kind of scene that warms the heart and sparks a smile: young parents kneeling in front of a Christmas tree for a family photo with their toddler, the little boy laughing as he shakes a strand of colorful beads.

It’s a picture of joy, yes, but also one of hope. For without Hope Resource Center (HRC) in Bedford, the little bundle of joy might not be here.

HRC executive director April Haskett beams with as much glee as the parents during the photo shoot, which takes place at the pregnancy care center. It’s one of the many ways the organization continues to support the women it serves.

“It’s nice for them to come into a place that’s peaceful and calm, and just kind of feel like they have somebody on their side,” she explains.

From pregnancy tests to ultrasounds, mother mentors to fatherhood classes, diapers and formula to Christmas photo shoots, Hope Resource Center is a shining example of how pregnancy care centers walk with pregnant and parenting mothers. (Related story: Three pregnancy care centers report on effects since Roe v. Wade was overturned)

It’s like HRC founder Elaine Wyckhoff told her, says Haskett: “Don’t ever lose sight that every time you walk in the door, it’s a battle of life and death.”

‘The calm in the storm’

That battle often boils down to support, says Haskett, who left her 30-year nursing career in 2019 to take on her current role.

“These young women feel like they’re trapped and [abortion is] the only choice they have,” she says. “Some women are scared to death, and they’re panicked. They feel like all of a sudden everyone’s abandoned them and maybe even they’re being threatened: ‘If you stay pregnant, you can no longer live here.’ ”

Such is the state of anxiety Haskett and her staff, nurses and volunteers see in many of the women who walk into Hope Resource Center. Their goal is to give the women “space and time to breathe.”

“I really want this [place] to feel like the calm in the storm,” Haskett says.

The inviting lobby helps, with its large “Hope” stencil, warm tones, cabinet of freebies—even a blanket-covered rocking chair next to a cozy-looking artificial fireplace.

But more than that, the calm comes from those who work and serve at HRC.

“One of the first things I’ll say to a young lady is, ‘OK, let’s take a deep breath,’ and let her know that we can step back and think about this [decision], that she doesn’t have to be driven by that urgency in chaos,” she says.

The staff take time when meeting with a mother, listening, showing compassion and, hopefully, conducting an ultrasound which—typical of services offered by pregnancy care centers—is free.

“I think women deep down, they want to see that ultrasound,” says Haskett. “Some of them come in with the idea, ‘If there’s no heartbeat, then I’m going to have an abortion.’ But then they’re amazed when there is a heartbeat and that immediately has an impact—there is life, it’s the truth, and the truth shares a lot of light.”

Such a response is not always the case. Haskett knows that sometimes “I may be the only one to ever see that baby alive. And that’s very sobering.”

But love and support is never denied a woman who walks through HRC’s doors, “and you never know the difference that might make,” says Haskett.

She recalls one woman who quickly left to get an abortion after her ultrasound. Haskett called her a few times in the ensuing weeks “just to see how she was and if she needed anything.” The woman was standoffish, and Haskett eventually lost contact with her.

“One day a woman walked in with a little baby boy, and I knew exactly who she was,” she recalls with an exuberant smile. “She looked so different, happy, and she came up to me and said, ‘I want you to know this little boy has saved my life.’ ”

‘We’re always here’

Founded in 1989, Hope Resource Center is the only pregnancy care center in Lawrence County. Haskett says they also see women from Green, Jackson, Monroe and Orange counties as well.

Services—all free—cover the gamut: pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing, ultrasounds, baby items, parenting classes with a reward program, even a children’s clothing resale shop open to the public.

After an ultrasound, women are sent home with a pregnancy care package. Once the baby is born, a volunteer will visit the home with a “postpartum” basket, and care packages are provided for women who suffer a miscarriage or whose baby dies after birth.

Help is available for post-abortion women as well. Through HRC’s Surrendering the Secret program, Haskett says client advocates who themselves are post-abortive “walk with them, hold their hand, cry with them, pray with them. They let them know we’re here for them.”

Where Haskett sees a growing need, she considers how HRC can help. Through her persistence, the facility’s mobile ultrasound RV unit—purchased from St. John the Apostle Parish in Bloomington for $1—now visits the Lawrence County jail weekly to provide STD screening for men and women, pregnancy testing and ultrasounds.

“To my knowledge and to [the jail administration’s] knowledge, we are the only pregnancy care center in the state of Indiana doing this,” she says. “We find out how far along [a woman is], and then we can get them on vitamins and get other services coming in and helping them. The new sheriff contacted me and asked if we could start teaching life skills and parenting classes to the men and women there.”

Another rising need Haskett identified is fatherhood classes for men, a program currently being developed.

“A lot of women have an abortion because they feel like they have no support,” she says. “If we go back to God’s pure, perfect design for the family and start helping [men] grow into what God designed them to be, then the whole family gets better.”

Pill bottles with Scripture passage “prescriptions,” supply-filled backpacks for children temporarily removed from their home, Christmas family photo shoots—all are ways HRC continues to care for those who seek help.

And the care never stops.

“We’re always here,” says Haskett. “It doesn’t really get real until they’re home by themselves in the middle of the night and the baby is screaming, or they can’t get the baby to latch [in nursing], or their 3-year-old is driving them crazy and they just need a break. There’s a woman who’s here all the time because she just needs family and someone to talk to.”

Hope ‘that they encounter Jesus here’

Haskett praises the HRC team—and says its number one teammate is God. Wherever there is a success, she is quick to say, “God did it,” often working through others.

The help might be worth thousands of dollars, like the ultrasound machine donated by the Knights of Columbus and Smithville rural electric membership cooperative.

Or the help might be ongoing, like the reimbursement the center receives from the Bedford Society of St. Vincent de Paul conference for crib, car seat, pack-and-play, changing table and diaper purchases.

And sometimes the help is oddly specific.

“Somebody will bring in a weird kind of formula, and then the very next day somebody will show up who needs it,” says Haskett. “Stuff like that happens every day—that’s just what [God] does. People who doubt his presence, they need to be involved in things like [HRC]— they’ll see it.”

The facility’s recent expansion—multiplying its space by one-third—is another example of divine help she mentions.

In the fall of 2021, says Haskett, “We were getting so busy that we started praying about, ‘OK, what does God want us to do?’ ” Located at the end of a strip mall, the only place to expand “was a tax company right next to us that had been there for decades. I thought, ‘Well, they’re never going to leave.’

“And sure enough, a few weeks later, we found out they’re leaving. … Meanwhile, our landlord offered to cover most of the bill of our expansion,” which is now within months of completion.

Hope Resource Center receives “wonderful” support from St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Bedford and St. Mary Parish in Mitchell, says Haskett.

One St. Vincent de Paul parishioner approached her with a very specific form of help.

Cathy Williams had already been volunteering for HRC several years when she felt called specifically to support Haskett in prayer. When Williams mentioned the idea, Haskett “just got up and hugged me.”

“She’s my Simon,” says Haskett, referring to the Cyrenian who helped Christ carry his cross. She and Williams meet once a week for prayer and faith sharing.

Whether it’s offering an ultrasound, care package, parenting class or Christmas family photo shoots, faith is at the core of all of Hope Resource Center’s efforts.

Haskett likens the organization’s mission to the Scripture story of the woman at the well. All the woman thought she needed that day was water, she says. But the “one thing she had in her mind became insignificant because she had an encounter with Jesus.

“[Women] might come in here for diapers or formula, or they might come in here and say, ‘Just give me an ultrasound, just tell me how far I am so I can go do this other thing.’

“But it’s my hope and prayer that they encounter Jesus here, that they feel peace here, and know that there’s hope.”
 

(For more information on Hope Resource Center in Bedford, go to hoperesourcectr.org or call 812-275-2827.) †