Nearly 90 per cent of single-parent families in Bermuda are led by women.
That’s a lot of mothers handling pregnancy, money worries and big life changes without a steady partner beside them. Early pregnancy can be an emotional roller coaster for anyone. Doing it alone can make that ride much harder.
Fiona Dill from It Takes a Village Foundation sees this reality up close. Her charity supports pregnant women through childbirth education, doula care and practical help like food, diapers and Belco vouchers and a soon-to-be-launched breast pump programme. While she often meets women later in pregnancy, the pressures often start much earlier.
“I think the hardest part is if the pregnancy was not planned,” Mrs Dill said. “Then they have to worry about if the dad is going to stick around and support them and the baby once it’s here.”
That uncertainty can sit heavily on a woman’s mind from the start.
Fear about money is another early stress. Bermuda’s cost of living is high, and pregnancy comes with extra expenses particularly if uninsured — quality food, maternity clothes and preparing for a baby all add up.
“The reality is that even when there are two working parents it can be hard,” Mrs Dill explained. “All they need is an additional cost in a month, like a health co-pay or going back to school expenses, and it can set them back.”
For women without a reliable partner, the constant stress can affect both mother and baby for years to come. That is one reason the foundation’s work goes beyond birth classes.
“Our approach is concerned with the short and long-term emotional and physical health of our whole community,” Mrs Dill said.
“We value and work closely with Government’s Maternal Health Clinic and health visitors as we share these goals.
“There are other similar programmes run elsewhere in the world that are very similar. From these overseas programmes, we know that this support works and goes some way to support health equity and reduce disparities in terms of experience and maternal and infant outcomes.”
A support system’s journey
Mrs Dill has run a childbirth education practice in Bermuda for 19 years. Six years ago, after attending one of her classes, a new mother, Erin Williams, came back with an idea.
“She said the classes had made such a difference to how she had regarded the birth process and such a difference to her experience of birth that she wanted every pregnant woman in Bermuda to have access to good evidence-based childbirth education regardless of their ability to pay,” Mrs Dill recalled.
When told there was no charity, the woman replied, “Well let’s create one.” Ms Williams became co-founder of It Takes a Village.
Many people know the group for its Facebook page where items are shared, but Mrs Dill said: “That is only a small part of what we do”. At its heart, the work is about helping women feel less alone at one of the most vulnerable times of their lives.
Combating fear with education
Mrs Dill said teaching women, and their partners, if they are around, about the birth process and how to advocate for themselves is “so important”. When a woman understands what her body is doing, she often feels more in control, which can lead to a more positive birth experience.
That sense of control can be especially powerful for women with past trauma. Mrs Dill pointed to a painful statistic: “Here in Bermuda, one in four girls have had some form of sexual abuse encounter and that has huge implications for the birth space.” Pregnancy and birth involve intimate exams and physical vulnerability, which can trigger old memories.
“If you have always felt your body is dirty or that people didn’t believe you or listen to you, then to experience agency and having a new narrative around your body as you see what it can do, can be transforming,” she said. Education and the right support can help a woman feel respected and heard.
Beyond birth classes
Food support is another key piece.
“We know that what we eat when pregnant can make a big difference to our health and that of the baby,” Mrs Dill said. But healthy food costs money, and not every family has enough. The foundation’s voucher programme aims to ease that strain.
One of the most personal forms of support the charity offers is community doula care. A doula is not a medical professional but a trained support person who stays with a woman through labour and into the early days after birth and beyond into early parenting to facilitate breastfeeding and post-partum recovery. This can be key to those that don’t have partner or family support.
“There is so much research that shows childbirth education and doula support decrease unnecessary interventions, increase breastfeeding rates and decrease post-partum depression,” Mrs Dill said.
The foundation also runs a diaper programme through government health clinics. Even that basic item can be a struggle. If a mom doesn’t have enough diapers, she may have to keep her baby in a dirty diaper for longer, which increases the risk of rashes.
Despite the challenges, she points to the strength she sees in mothers.
“Many single-parent families are headed by women and in my experience strong, resilient women who love their kids and do everything they can to give them what they need,” she explained.
Early support can have lasting effects. It’s also helpful for women just knowing that ‘the village’ cares. “Even if a mom doesn’t have the birth experience they were hoping for, what we know is that if someone feels safe, listened to and respected then it can still be a positive experience,” she said.
She believes more needs to happen at a community and policy level. Childcare is a major issue. “Happy Valley Daycare is government run and brilliant, but so oversubscribed,” she said. “Another facility like that would be amazing.”
