Pregnant at 13, now this mum is shining

May 10th, 2013

Caitlin Lehmann, 14, with her 10-month-old child Anthony at the St Joseph’s Education Centre, Enfield. Picture: Robertson Calum
Source: adelaidenow

LITTLE Anthony cries and reaches up to his mother. With innate instinct she picks him up for a cuddle – just like any mother would do.

But Caitlin Lehmann is no ordinary mother.

Caitlin was pregnant at 13 and she will celebrate her first Mother’s Day with her 11-month-old son, Anthony on Sunday – when she turns 15.

A child herself who has been forced to grow up and mould herself into a mother and role model for her son, she is one of about 800 people under the age of 19 who give birth in South Australia every year.

But before people judge or ridicule her – and she’s heard it all – she is forging ahead with life with a strong vision for a happy and prosperous future for herself and her son.

“I want to give him a better future,” she says. “I just want the best for him than what I had and did for myself.”

First on her list is to finish high school through the innovative St Joseph’s Education Centre and then to university, where she hopes to study midwifery.

Caitlin’s life changed when she found out she was pregnant. Aged 13 and when her peers were preparing themselves for high school and concerning themselves with nothing more than Justin Bieber’s latest haircut and netball practice, she had to start preparing for labour, breastfeeding and sleep routines.

“I was 21 weeks pregnant when I found out,” she says.

“I found out because I had a kidney infection. My mum was in the room, they said sorry for my mum to find out (like that).

“So they asked me in for an emergency ultrasound.

“We were only expecting to see a 10-week-old (foetus), not a 21-week, so me and her were both shocked. She wasn’t angry, she was a teen mum herself … she was just shocked and a bit upset.”

Caitlin turns 15 on Saturday and continues to live at home with her mother and seven of nine brothers and sisters at Oakden.

Anthony’s father – whom she did not want to reveal details about – is back in the picture, living with his own mother and visiting his son on the weekends. Caitlin has nothing but praise for her school.

“This is like a second home to me,” she says. “My education is going well and I enjoy being here with friends. This is pretty much the only social life I have.

“It gives me time to think about other things.”

The St Joseph’s Education Centre has been operating for three years and sits on the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart campus in Enfield. School administrator Lyn Jonson looks over their 20 students – aged from 13 to 20 – who bring their babies to school to be looked after in the adjoining creche by trained staff.

During recess and lunch, the young mothers converge in the creche to laugh and play with their babies.

“We are unique because we are really education-focused,” Ms Jonson says. “We’re about getting your SACE.”

Younger students like Caitlin follow a different curriculum from those doing their Year 11 and 12 studies and many of the girls head to the main OLSH school for different subjects. Caitlin is studying art this way, and some girls are doing psychology.

The school runs Monday to Thursday and offers a bus pick-up service through Elizabeth and Parafield Gardens.

Over the three years it has been operating, the school has helped 14 young mothers achieve their SACE. This year, two girls are completing Year 12 – both doing it part-time to better juggle motherhood.

The students also work closely with charity organisation Zonta to make birthing kits that are sent to Africa. “And last year, we made some breast cushions for women who’ve had mastectomies,” Ms Jonson says. “It’s a way of the girls giving back.

Ms Jonson says the main aim of the institution is to give their students belief. “We’re not just an educational facility,” she says. “We are health workers, counsellors, financial wizards. They come to us with everything.”

Living in the same bedroom as his mother, remnants of Caitlin’s childhood have been discarded to allow for Anthony’s.

“To give him room, I’ve thrown out a lot of stuff,” Caitlin says. “I was willing to.”

Caitlin will be spending her birthday and Mother’s Day with her son: a stark contrast from last year’s 14th birthday celebrations.

“Last year I went out to the movies, that’s all I did,” she says. “I was pregnant, so I made sure I took my school ID card because I told them how old I was and they didn’t believe me.”

Judgment is something she’s used to; when she was 28 weeks pregnant, she posted a photo of herself on Facebook and was inundated with more than 1000 comments. Many were nasty.

“I just kept saying, `Say what you want’. I didn’t fight back because it just would have been worse,” she says.

But Caitlin says motherhood has changed her – for the best. “I don’t know how to put it – it’s just better; I enjoy it a lot more than being bored,” she says. “It gives me something to do … I just play with him and his toys and read him books. I never used to read books, it’s just different.

“And I now go to school a lot more than I did.”

And slowly – just like all new mothers – Caitlin is adjusting and getting her “old self” back. “I’ve started (AFL) football again,” she says. “I play for Modbury – the Hawks. Anthony comes along with me. He crawls along the oval while I train.”

Being the third eldest of 10 children has meant she’s “picked up” being a mother simply through being a sister and is thoroughly enjoying it.

“He’s the best thing that has ever happened to me,” she says.

She can see herself having more babies in the future. “Every time I see a baby I think I want another one, but I’m going to wait until I’m out of the house and got a licence,” she says.

But whatever lies ahead for Caitlin in the future, for now, she is loving watching over her son as he starts to take his first steps.

Perhaps the biggest legacy of teenage mothers like Caitlin is that the love of a mother knows no bounds: no matter her age.

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