I was happy to find an article in The Dartmouth written about pregnancy at the College a few weeks ago ("College offers services for pregnant students," April 21), but having done an independent study on this topic last term, I feel compelled to share some of my findings in order to provide a more complete picture. Through a campus-wide survey and several interviews, I have found that Dartmouth students and staff members are largely unaware of the resources available for undergraduate mothers. Along with Dartmouth's success-driven culture, this lack of awareness may contribute to the perception that it is unfeasible or is social suicide for undergraduates to become parents in the event of an unexpected pregnancy. Although the Dartmouth community takes many measures to prevent pregnancy, when a young woman does become pregnant, she may feel as though she must choose between having her baby and maintaining a happy, successful life. Without the support of the Dartmouth community, which might simply involve directing her toward readily available resources in the Upper Valley, she is left on her own to navigate one of the most important decisions of her life.
Through a campus-wide survey, I found that 90 percent of approximately 900 undergraduates did not know whether Dartmouth offered low-cost childcare to undergraduates who are mothers, and 79 percent did not know whether Dartmouth offered family housing to undergraduate students who are mothers. In fact, Dartmouth does not offer childcare to undergraduate mothers, and the College cannot always guarantee undergraduate mothers appropriate housing accommodations on-campus.
However, there are a number of resources available for young mothers in the Upper Valley. Pregnant undergraduates at Dartmouth may be eligible for free childcare, health care and counseling services sponsored by the Division of Family Assistance. Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides new mothers with breastfeeding support and baby food. Good Beginnings, a non-profit in West Lebanon, offers home visits to connect families of all income levels to local services and help with childcare, early childhood literacy and transportation. The list goes on.
Although Dartmouth students and staff members may prefer to ignore the reality of undergraduate pregnancies, women at Dartmouth do get pregnant and deserve community support. Regardless of whether a pregnant student chooses to become a parent, give her child up for adoption or have an abortion, her decision will affect her for the rest of her life. Dartmouth women deserve to know all of the options in order to make such an important decision.
Ideally, staff members in the Office of Residential Life (including undergraduate advisors), the Dean of the College's Office and Dick's House would be able to direct students to resources so that busy and potentially panicked undergraduates can make a realistic assessment of their situation. Unfortunately, in my research, I found that not all of Dick's House women's health practitioners were aware of the many resources for young mothers in the Upper Valley. One nurse practitioner did not know until she began to prepare for our interview that Dartmouth undergraduate mothers may be eligible for free federally-sponsored childcare, leading me to question the quality of the "options counseling" she had been offering. She told me, "It could have happened, but I doubt that there would be an undergraduate in the 18-22 age group who would choose to have a baby during her undergraduate career." Her reasoning: "You have other things to do. There's so much to do. It would take away from your being able to fully participate in the life of Dartmouth College."
It is my hope that the Dartmouth community will rally to offer more on-campus resources for women who become pregnant, and become informed about nearby off-campus resources. In pursuit of this goal, I am working with a group of students to distribute resources for pregnant women across the College, hoping that the Dartmouth community is willing to put aside its assumptions in order to help those who need their support. I would also like to see the Tucker Foundation set up a volunteer-based childcare service for undergraduate and graduate parents in order to foster supportive relationships between parenting undergraduates and non-parenting undergraduates. As one Dartmouth undergraduate mother said, "It's not as difficult as it looks, and it would be only be easier if people didn't think it was so strange. There's no reason why a girl here can't be smart, driven, gifted and also a mother."
