Mother notices lack of campus resources

Lynette Anigbo showed up for her first class of junior year with a backpack, a diaper bag, a breast pump and her baby boy strapped to her chest.

Anigbo got pregnant at the beginning of her sophomore year when she was 20 years old.

“I really didn’t like kids, and I didn’t want to get married,” Anigbo said. “I was just going to jet set and see the world. That was my plan.”

Her boyfriend at the time was two years older, and Anigbo said he took off for California shortly after finding out she was pregnant.

Her parents live in Nigeria, and she had to call them from across the world with the news.

“My mom said, ‘Call your dad,’” Anigbo said. “My dad was like, ‘Well, you’re not the first girl, and you won’t be the last girl. Make sure you finish school.’”

Now, Anigbo is 26 and in her final year as a master’s student at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. She has her own apartment, a job and a 5-year-old son, Charles, an outgoing kindergartner who likes to play soccer and guitar.

Throughout the past six years at IU, Anigbo had to learn how to raise a child in an environment better suited for the single and carefree.

Students with children on campus, like Anigbo, can spend years on the waiting lists at the IU childcare centers. The lactation rooms are limited and difficult to find.

This past year’s closing of the Office of Women’s Affairs eliminated a safe and obvious place for pregnant students to go for help.

IU houses five child care centers, which are reserved for the children of IU students and faculty. A third of the parents who use these facilities are students, according to Coordinator of Child Care Services Tim Dunnuck.

Two hundred children are enrolled in the program, and 500 are on the waitlist.
Because only eight infants are allowed in a classroom at a time, many younger children put on the waitlist do not get a spot, Dunnuck said.

The infants who do get into the program end up filling up the toddler classes as well, gridlocking the waitlist until the child is of preschool age or older.

“Right now, if you don’t get your child in as an infant, your next opportunity might not be until it is three years old,” Dunnuck said.

For parents who do not gain a spot in a day care, Dunnuck said, he recommends a list of alternate options in the community.

Though Bloomington has childcare available, Dunnuck said the quality of care in the community varies significantly.

“The IU centers have traditionally been the best centers in the community,” Dunnuck said.
Dunnuck said he recommends prospective parents start looking for child care when the mother is pregnant.

Anigbo said she put her son on the waitlist a week after she found out she was pregnant, gaining a spot for him. But children can’t enroll in the IU day care until they are 7 weeks old, so she brought her son to class with her until he was old enough to enroll.

She received support from her peers and professors.

Anigbo said all but one of her professors in undergraduate and graduate school said she could bring her son to class with her.

When she went into the hallway to feed her son during one class, Anigbo said, her professor lectured from the open door so she could continue listening.

Being a full-time student and a full-time mom is challenging, and without the help of her parents or a partner, Anigbo said she had to learn a lot about raising a child on her own.

After making it through her son’s first five months, she approached the women at the former Office of Women’s Affairs and offered to write a Parents’ Packet that would help guide young mothers.

In the packet, she highlights some of the resources available in the community, including information on breast-feeding on campus, day cares to try and the best way to schedule classes with a child.  

Anigbo described the Office of Women’s Affairs as a safe place for women to talk about pregnancy, as well as self-esteem problems, rape, sexual assault and sexism on campus.

It was dissolved last year, and its responsibilities were divided between Human Resources and the Office of Student Affairs.

Anigbo cited Associate Dean of Students Carol McCord, former assistant dean of the Office of Women’s Affairs, as one of the most helpful resources for pregnant women on campus.

McCord has assisted Anigbo throughout her son’s life, helping her organize her classes so she could remain in school and telling her what rights professors and students have in terms of bringing their children to the classroom.

Anigbo said it was such a helpful office because women knew exactly where to go with these uncomfortable or taboo issues.

“It gets lost,” Angibo said. “It’s not easy to be like, ‘Hey, I think this is a specifically a girl issue’ because most of the time you’re trying to blend in.”

Twenty-year-old Darian Foster is a friend of Anigbo’s and another student mom on campus. She is a junior youth development student at the School of Public Health.

Her husband is also a student at IU, and they have been married for two years. Their son is 11 months old.

Foster said she surprised herself with her resilience and ability to get things done. She no longer has the luxury of wasting time.

“Many students complain about not having enough time to do homework or study, but you haven’t studied your hardest until you’ve had to study on a time crunch because your child may wake up at any moment,” Foster said.

Foster said she has not turned to the University for many resources, using government aid and Bloomington resources such as the Crisis Pregnancy Center, which offers discounted products and support for mothers in need. She is only aware of one lactation room on campus, Foster said, which is located in the Indiana Memorial Union.

There are seven lactation rooms on campus, Anigbo said, but they are hard to find without asking.

Some require codes to get in. Others are merely bathrooms with a chair next to it, she said.

“It’s disgusting,” Anigbo said. “You’re pumping next to a toilet.”

The IU Health Center does not offer pregnant students prenatal care IU health and sexuality educator Kathryn Brown said.

However, Brown said pregnant college women can meet with IU reproductive providers to discuss their options and be referred to resource centers in the community.  
Anigbo said she tells her son that when he gets older, he is going to go to college and graduate school.

When her son’s father is watching Charles, Anigbo said she walks around campus and watches the students laughing, playing music in the grass and sitting on the rooftops.

She wonders what it would be like to feel carefree again, to not have anyone depending on her.

However, Anigbo said she does not regret her choice, even if it meant growing up a little earlier.

“I realized that no one is really doing anything more meaningful than what I’m doing when I’m taking care of my son,” Anigbo said. “I’m not really missing anything. When I’m out, I want to go back home and lay down with my child.”