Washington’s Carolina Pregnancy Center is no more.
The faith-based center specialized in pregnancy care, offering pregnancy tests, ultrasounds, counseling, baby items, one-on-one CPR training and parenting classes. It will continue to do so under a new name: Coastal Pregnancy Center.
“And everything is free,” said Susie Rollins, the center’s executive director.
As of March 31, the center became an independent center. As Carolina Pregnancy Center, it operated as a satellite office of Greenville’s Carolina Pregnancy Center.
Rollins said the center was named Coastal Pregnancy Center when it was established in 1988. In 2004, it merged with the Greenville center and became its satellite program.
“When it merged in 2004, the goal was that it would one day be an independent center again,” Rollins said. “It just seemed like the right thing to do. But we appreciate Carolina Pregnancy Center in a big way.”
The center now operates under its own board of directors, some of the directors from the original center’s board.
Two of the center’s five volunteer advocates (counselors) are registered nurses. One of the five is a new addition, a male advocate.
“We’re going after the baby daddy,” Rollins said. “We love, love, love our babies, but we want the baby daddy. And he wants us, too. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
Teenage parents who come to the center for counseling or classes receive free baby supplies as an incentive. The center is in desperate need of more supplies.
Once parents come a few times, Rollins said, they see that the counselors are their cheerleaders and regularly return. Through word-of-mouth, she said, many of her former clients have returned in the past two weeks.
“Because it’s easy to teach somebody what they already want to be, a good parent,” she said.
The center expanded its operating schedule from two days a week to four. The new hours are Mondays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Wednesdays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The center is located at 1312 John Small Ave. For more information, call 946-8040.