Listening for Life
Why we need an unexpected pregnancy helpline
"There are still hundreds of thousands of people in the UK every year who are struggling with unexpected pregnancy issues and deserve access to the service that Life’s Helpline is uniquely placed to offer."
A woman today is under enormous pressure as she carries the emotional weight and makes decisions for both herself and her current or future family. The very least we can do is make sure that she has a place to reflect and express herself openly, in safety, while she fulfils that role. This is where Life’s National Helpline, offering free skilled listening and counselling, comes in.
This service is vital to our mission to create a world where no one faces pregnancy or pregnancy loss alone. Our Helpline, which runs of the generosity of donations, means that anyone, woman or man, can reach support when faced with an unexpected or crisis pregnancy, or pregnancy loss.
What’s the big deal? Pregnancy is normal…
It can still be (rather astonishingly for this day and age) really hard to talk about anything that isn’t seen as a ‘perfect’ or ‘wanted’ pregnancy. But with half of all pregnancies in the UK every year recorded as ‘unplanned’, as well as cases of changing circumstances, tragedies, trauma and worrying diagnoses during a pregnancy, there are hundreds of thousands of women, men and families in the UK facing an unexpected pregnancy journey.
Skilled listening makes a difference
Often, when someone is facing a pregnancy challenge, they need someone to talk to who isn’t in their immediate network of family, friends or medical professionals – someone who is really listening to what they feel.
The benefit of seeking skilled listening or counselling through our Helpline is that it offers a safe space. A non-directive and completely accepting conversation (as in: no one tells you what they think you should do or says, ‘If I were’ you). Clients have a bit of breathing room to explore how they feel, be open about all their thoughts and emotions – whatever those may be – and come to a place of more clarity about what they want and need.
We can only continue supporting women in their unexpected pregnancy journeys with your help. If you can spare anything at all, women, children and future generations all over the UK will benefit from your generosity today.
What’s so special about Life’s Helpline?
Life’s Helpline, which offers free skilled listening and professional counselling to anyone who needs a space to talk, operates to the highest standards of professional integrity. We are unique as a Helpline committed to non-directive, highly skilled and specialized support in cases of unexpected pregnancy journeys. (Find out more about us and our service standards here.)
Who can get in touch with the Helpline?
There are many unique journeys that we are privileged to walk with clients on, for a few minutes or for many months or years.
We might support a woman right from wondering if she’s pregnant and supplying a free, discreet pregnancy test, all the way through to moving into one of our 19 nationwide Life Houses until she’s ready to move on with her child to independent living.
Our Helpline gets calls, texts and messages from people dealing with teen pregnancy, later-life pregnancies in families with children already, pregnancy or baby loss including miscarriage and still-birth, abortion and post-abortion issues, pre-natal diagnoses that may be life-impacting or life-limiting, as well as more complex issues that are sometimes referred to us by professionals.
No two pregnancies are the same, and as a culture we don’t prepare women enough for the changes and different challenges they might experience. On the Helpline, we might support people as they talk about relationship issues due to the pregnancy or even difficult pregnancies or losses that occurred decades ago. We are also receiving more calls from men, who we support both because they are valuable human beings in their own right and because they are often the main support for women going through pregnancy challenges.
Why Listening for Life is worth supporting
Offering the space for clients to be supported in their pregnancy journey not only makes a difference in that ‘here and now’ moment, it creates an environment of self-awareness and belief. The impact of empowering people in times of challenge, grief, triumph and joy is never simply a salve for that moment. It resonates throughout their lives and echoes down generations.
There are still hundreds of thousands of people in the UK every year who are struggling with unexpected pregnancy issues and deserve access to the service that Life’s Helpline is uniquely placed to offer. We’re currently only able to serve a fraction of the need.
Please do support this silent but deeply impactful work in any way you can: by spreading the word, following Life’s Helpline on Facebook or Instagram, keeping our contact details saved for anyone who might need them (see our home page), making a donation, fundraising or even investing in yourself and training in counselling skills with us – which might lead to applying to volunteer on the Helpline in the future.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll keep saying it: let’s create a world where no one faces pregnancy or pregnancy loss alone.
Thanks for listening.
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