POWs – supporting clients, every day

2nd November 2012

Pregnancy Outreach Workers, or POWs, provide support to women for their social and emotional needs. Social needs can mean anything from a little housing support, to very complex issues such as child protection or domestic violence.

One of the areas in which we offer support is attending appointments, both medical and non-medical. By supporting clients to attend their medical appointments we can ensure that they are receiving the best medical care for themselves and the unborn baby. In this video, Farzana is going to a hospital appointment with her client.

Some of the women who are supported to attend appointments lack confidence to attend by themselves, or need someone with them who can explain what is happening during the appointment. Some of the women are isolated and do not have anyone who could accompany them to hospital or other non-medical appointments. The POW acts as a befriender in these situations so that the woman does not feel like she is alone.

Many of the women that we support are in financial difficulties, for any number of reasons – it could be a delay in benefits, or moving from a paid job to benefits, or having no recourse to public funds. As a result, some pregnant women can go days without food; especially those who are isolated or estranged from family.

Gateway Family Services operates a food bank of non perishable items. We rely on donations to the food bank. In the video above, Farzana delivers a food parcel to one of her clients who was in desperate need of some help. As you can imagine, being pregnant and hungry is very unpleasant; not to mention the effects that this could have on the unborn baby.

These are just a couple of the things that POWs do every day. No two days are the same, just as no two cases are the same.

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