Chantelle's story

My name is Chantelle I’m a young mum of two adorable little girls, named Eva and Amelia, when I first got pregnant with my first baby Eva, so many things were running through my head, like will I finish school will the baby’s father stick around I was thinking of every thing you could ever imagine when you get pregnant, I was so scared when she arrived I had no idea, but because I had my mum there I eventually figured out what to do.
When my second baby came along I felt like a pro, I now no the ins and outs of it all.

My Story

Hi my name’s Kimberly, I’m nineteen and have three children. I have had many good times and many hard times. Well I guess I should start from the beginning I met my partner when I was 15 and fell pregnant three months later and my family did not approve of my partner or of my illegitimate child so they demanded that I have an abortion. I refused because I believe that it is murder, I will not kill my child just because it was not convenient for me, everything happens for a reason.
Ever since then my relationship with my family has never been the same, but it is slowly healing.
I moved out with my partner and things did not go as smoothly as I would of hoped. When I had my son I had no idea what I was doing and it didn’t help that he was born premature. He was born at 29 weeks and 4 days and spent 5 weeks in hospital. When he was discharged I slipped into post natal depression and fund myself in a rut. Not even my partner could help me out of my depression. I eventually found help through my partner and with counseling I slowly got out of my depression. It took about a year. During this time my partner had a serious drug problem and we found ourselves struggling to survive. It was a very difficult time especially trying to do the best I could as a mother without the support of my partner. Before I knew it I became pregnant again with my daughter. I was 17 years old. From here everything seemed to get worse. When I was about 6 months pregnant I confronted my partner about his drug problem and asked him to choose between his drugs or his family. My partner chose drugs. I was heart broken. I left him and went into emergency accommodation. I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. It was so difficult as I felt alone and lost. I found I was still trying to fight for my partner’s affection even though he had hurt me more that anyone ever had. We had lost our house and my partner moved to my mother’s house. I chased after him because I didn’t think I could do it on my own. I went to a member of his family who supported me and understood how I was feeling. She was wonderful however I still wanted to be a family especially as I grew up in a broken family. I developed a plan. I thought we could have a new beginning. I found a house and worked towards getting together again with my partner. He told me he was drug free however not long after we moved in together everything went backwards. He started to reuse and even drive his car illegally. Before I knew it he was in jail sentenced to two years. I moved into my mother’s as I had no where else to go. Sadly this also fell apart as she too has mental health issues. I left my mothers with my two children and also my sisters as they were at risk of harm staying with my mother. During this period I discovered I was once again pregnant. I was 18 years.
I contacted DoCs for their support. Docs were concerned as I had no accommodation. My children and my younger sister were taken into care while I found supportive accommodation. So the fun begins. I have currently been staying in a supported accommodation service

stuff about me and my kid

Well since my kid has been born, I have learned that kids are a valuable thing and should know both their parents so that in the up and coming years it makes it easy to visit and to talk to them. Now that I am single and don’t see my kid that often I see that things have changed and ant the same any more coz I am not around al the time and won’t get to see them grow up….. the Love Makes me stick around

Some of my mates are jealous, when the girls come into our lives, everything changes. Because we’re young dads we can’t g out anymore and everyone takes a certain point of view because of that. I kept one or two friends, but not many. I don’t have that many friends now. This all happened about three years ago, I’d finished school, and was working.

When they really want stuff from you that’s when they’ll ring.

Basically you lose friends when you have kids. Often they (friends) move away.
It’s not to bad, it’s all good. I love being a Dad, I love having kids. The best bit is seeing the kids, and having quality time with them, having your own kids.

It’s a full time job being a parent, in a way because you have lots of responsibilities, but you can still have quality time to yourself, you have that choice. Kids don’t stop you having fun, but there’s less time, you can’t do it every day of the week.

Ÿou build a bridge now and you get over it you got kids now and it’s a new life”.

It was good being present at the births. It was scary but it makes you more alert.

The hardest bit was learning everything about what kids was about.

I appreciate the kids

We were ready to go, and we really wanted it, but not when we expected it.

Laura Angels Story

My name is Laura and I am a 19 year old mother of a beautiful 13 month old little boy Kayne and I love my life ,but this was not always the story. This story is to show people that things do get better when you hit rock bottom and anyone can turn their life around and make a good life for them selves. This story begins with a 14 year old me sitting alone in a room in a refuge in old mount Druitt ,I knew nobody and knew nothing about refuges , I was to scared to leave my room because there were no locks on the doors and I thought someone would come and steal my one bag of belongings I had .When I finally emerged from my room to go for a cigarette I saw a small blonde girl that looked very familiar ,then I realised she was a girl I new from primary school and I thought to myself what is she doing here ,she was one of those girls that looked like they had the perfect life she was beautiful and had lots of friends and was always happy .We started talking and she told me that she has been living in foster care since she was 5 and a lot of terrible things were done to her and she ran away and was found by police and taken to this refuge .It just goes to show that things are not always as they appear .I have to admit I was glad to here that there are people out there that share the same pain and hurt that I feel .Over the next couple of weeks me and Jess got really close maby a bit too close ,we started not wanting to go to school because we had so much fun together we used to go to the shops every day and steal clothes and makeup ,I know how it sounds but when you have no money and you’re a teenage girl the only way to have nice things is to take them. After a couple of months me and jess got expelled from school .

Angela's story

I am a 20 year old young mum of 3 small children aged 30 months, 20 months and 8 months. My children are the best thing that ever happened to me. I had my first child at 17 years of age her name is Taylor and she was born 3.080 kg 52 cm long she was a healthy little girl. I remember like it was yesterday I was in labor for 16 and a half hours. I ended up getting an epidural after around 8 hours. From my experience the epidural slowed down my labor and then when it came down to pushing I couldn’t feel anything so I had to get a vacuum delivery. I was really a scary thing but in the end it was worth it in the end. After I had her I was in a wheel chair for two days and in hospital for 6 days. I was breast feeding in hospital and the nurses don’t tell you it’s not meant to hurt but I got threw it I was breast feeding for around 6 weeks. I had to stop breast feeding because my milk dried up. I remember the first time I got home from the hospital I started crying because I was so scared there was no nurses to help but I was fine. I never new that you had to get up like 10 times a night to feed them and change there nappies so it was a big shock. It’s funny that I look back at it now and think how unaware I was about every thing. How she is 2 and a half and talking and learning more and more every day sing her ABC and a whole heap of nursery rhymes I’m so glad I can

A dad's experience

The best thing that could happen to a bloke is becoming a dad is the feeling and actually being there when your child is born knowing that it was well worth the nine months spending and preparing everything plus the trips back and forwards from the hospital and seeing your child develop and hearing the heart beat just makes you proud of yourself and your partner you just know it was a job well done

Kane