Mary Pat’s Story
National Catholic Register: A Haven for Moms and Babies: St. Gianna & Pietro Molla Maternity Home
Article appeared in National Catholic Register | By: Patti Maguire Armstrong | Photo Credit: National Catholic Register
Every day is different at the St. Gianna & Pietro Molla Maternity Home in Warsaw, North Dakota, according to Mary Pat Jahner, the maternity home’s director. Except for love. Love is part of every day.
Since the home’s founding in 2003, single mothers with unplanned pregnancies ranging in age from 12 to 39, their babies and sometimes older siblings, have come from near and far to find refuge in this tiny prairie hamlet of just 60 souls. Five miles from Minto with a population of 600 people, 30 miles north of Grand Forks, and 60 miles from the Canadian border, it is quiet and remote. But inside the walls of the home, it is bustling with life. Here, moms with nowhere else to go have found they belong.
“Those who come here are alone in the world,” Jahner told the Register. “It’s a hard situation. We have a lot of after-birth work, to help them for the long haul.” Moms can stay up to three years after the birth of their babies.
National Review: How Giving Mothers the Aid They Need Can Help End Abortion
Article appeared in National Review | By: Mary Pat Jahner | Photo Credit: National Review
As I reflect on 18 years of our home, I am filled with gratitude to see the role God has allowed us to play in radically transforming so many lives and saving countless women from being forced into abortions and suffering the trauma that it inflicts. We empower each mother to see that, like St. Gianna, they are strong enough not only to “choose the child,” but also that through our help, they can build happy, stable lives for their new families.
Even after they leave us and begin their new lives, they always know they have a loving family here at St. Gianna’s.
Fox News: North Dakota Maternity Home for Crisis Pregnancies Celebrates 20th Anniversary with Over 150 Babies Born
Article appeared in Fox News | By: Christine Rousselle | Photo Credit: Fox News
In addition to prenatal care, the Gianna Home provides for the residents’ emotional, educational and spiritual needs. Some residents are still in high school when they arrive; others opt to pursue professional certifications.
Residents of any faith are welcome to live at the home, but Sunday Mass attendance is mandatory, as is evening prayer and prayer before meals.
Jahner also works to set moms up for success after their children are born, offering assistance in finding a job, an apartment or both.
“A lot of times, you pay that first month’s rent for them,” she said.
The connections to the home do not end when the baby is born. Each mother’s stay at the Gianna Home after her child is born is different, depending on circumstances, but the moms can maintain a connection if they so desire.
“We are also their family when they leave,” said Jahner. “So many times, the people who come here are alone in this world, or they don’t have functional family or people they can depend on. They’re living couch to couch.”
Daily Signal: For 20 Years, Pro-Life Home Has Served Mothers Who Are 'Alone in the World'
Article appeared in Daily Signal | By: Virginia Allen
Home. For all of us, the word brings images to mind. Home is meant to be a place of comfort and safety, but for some women facing unplanned pregnancies, this isn’t the case. And that’s why St. Gianna and Pietro Molla Home in Warsaw, North Dakota, exists.
“There are so many people who really are alone in the world who might not, in North Dakota, be on the streets homeless, but maybe they’re living couch to couch,” says Mary Pat Jahner, director of the North Dakota home. “Maybe they have family, but … there would not be a means for gas money to [go to] an appointment or to get a car seat or things like that. So, you know, those are the people that we serve, the people who are alone in the world,” Jahner, founder of the St. Gianna and Pietro Molla Home, explains.
Peace Garden News: Former Resident: The Saint Gianna & Pietro Molla Maternity Home ‘Has Changed My Life and Given My Baby a Wonderful Start in Life”
Article appeared in Peace Garden News | By: Peace Garden News
While pro-life activists are engaged in the courts, the staff at the Saint Gianna & Pietro Molla Maternity Home continue to offer support for women who are experiencing crisis pregnancies. Founded in 2003, the home offers pregnant women of any age safe shelter, food, clothing, education, counseling and support as they pursue an alternative to abortion.
“I was going down a path that wasn’t good for me and especially not for my child. I was not sure where life was going to take me, but I knew that something needed to change. Thankfully, I was presented a few options or ways that could help me and my baby, and Saint Gianna’s was one of them,” according to a testimonial on the home’s website. “I didn’t know what a maternity home even was. However, the Gianna Home has changed my life and given my baby a wonderful start in life.”
EWTN Pro-Life Weekly: Maternity Home in North Dakota Inspired by Gianna and Pietro Molla
Interview appeared on EWTN Pro-Life Weekly | By: Prudence Robertson
EWTN Pro-Life Weekly’s Prudence Robertson reports on the lifesaving, life-changing work of the St. Gianna and Pietro Molla maternity home in North Dakota. Mary Pat, the home’s founder, and several moms the home has helped share their stories.
