By Taylor Boyd
The Pregnancy Care Center, a nonprofit medical clinic based in Martinsville, opened its temporary space at the Caring Hearts Free Clinic in Stuart on Wednesday, Nov. 5.
Executive Director Paula Wood said the center will be at the Free Clinic every Wednesday from 1 to 5 p.m.
“Just to kind of gauge the interest for Patrick County, then hopefully if we have enough interest we’re going to try and get another site. We had an offer more than a year ago for a potential site but I haven’t heard back about that, so we may still be looking,” she said.
Wood said the organization decided to try having a location in Patrick County as about 10% of its total clientele is from the area.
The Free Clinic is “letting us use their facility, at least that afternoon, but they also offered anytime that they’re not there to let us use it so we could expand if we need to,” she said.
The organization offers free pregnancy tests, limited sexually transmitted disease screening, and free ultrasounds. It does not offer or refer for pregnancy terminations or birth control.
“Once someone has a positive pregnancy test, we can do the ultrasound to kind of tell them how far along they are in their pregnancy and verify that they are pregnant,” she said.
Wood said the group also offers an Earn While You Learn program, where expectant mothers can enroll in virtual classes where they watch videos and take tests at the end.
“They earn points they can use at our boutique, so those points can buy them items for their baby up until their baby is 2 years old. They can take those courses every week until their baby is two,” she said.
If an expectant mother is enrolled in the program, before she goes to give birth the center will give her a bag of items she may need while in the hospital, including socks, snacks, ChapStick, blankets, pads and other necessary items.
“After they deliver, we also can give them a gift certificate where they can do a meal after they deliver for their family,” Wood added.
Wood estimates the organization has served about 100 women a year since it began in 2009. This past year it helped about 117 women.
As the center doesn’t receive state or local funding, Wood said it relies on the grants it applies for annually and community support.
“Most of our support comes from churches or individual donors,” Wood said. “Then we also do fundraisers throughout the year. Like we have the Bikers for Babies event in August, we had a banquet dinner in September, and we had a golf tournament that happened in May.”
Those wishing to donate should go to the organization’s website and click the Partner/Give tab at the top right corner of the page.
To schedule an appointment, call (276) 634-5433.
For more information, go to pregcc.com or facebook.com/PregnancyCareCenter.
