By Dionte E.
HBP Taught Me to Be a Responsible Dad

By Dionte E.

Healthy Babies Project is an organization with great passion for today’s mothers and fathers. It is one thing to find an agency to help you, but it is a tremendous thing to have staff and new friends walk beside you every step of the way. I am here to say that HBP has made a significant change in my life. The HBP staff help people like me to be leaders and role models for our children.

Dionte's babyAlmost 9 months ago, my fiancée and I came to HBP to take a pregnancy test. Together, we prepared for our daughter to be born.  Becoming a father is a humbling and growing experience. My fiancée is nineteen years old and a high school graduate with plans to attend the University of the District of Columbia. Even so, she can be a handful.

The HBP staff provided both of us with counseling and support. My fiancée was on bed rest towards the end of her pregnancy. Staff members picked her up and drove her to her prenatal appointments to ensure that our daughter was born healthy.

The people at HBP taught me the correct way to discipline my child, how to care for my child, and most of all – as a man – to provide for my child. I am a college student with a part-time job, classes, and apprenticeship, which together is more than a full-time schedule. Yet, in working with HBP, I chose this schedule to make me stronger and help me become more responsible. This is just one way of many ways this great organization has helped me.

I am forever grateful for the continuous efforts of Healthy Babies Project and wish to say thank you for making a difference in the life of a young man who is trying to be responsible for his new family. I pray that many more people become involved with this wonderful agency that helps those whom often times are ignored.

Dionte’s fiancée gave birth to a healthy baby girl on December 29, 2010. Midwife Erica Sawyer at the Family Health and Birth Center (an HBP partner) delivered her at 8 pounds, 5 ounces and 21 inches long. Mother and baby – and father – are doing beautifully!

If you know a pregnant woman or expectant family who needs help, please refer them to HBP at (202) 396-2809.