Pregnant at 15 and a mum at 16, West Auckland student Liz Sayegh says walking through the doors of the Bethany Centre was a shock.
The 98-year-old building stands in a quiet street in Grey Lynn. From the outside, it looks like any other house along the tree-lined road.
"It was all like a really big shock to have to end up there in the first place," says Liz as she croons to one-year-old Tyler, sitting on her lap. At 17, she is finishing her studies at the Teen Parenting Unit of Henderson High School.
"It was my own choice to go [to Bethany]," she explains.
Liz was raised by her grandparents who were not up to the task of raising another child.
"I felt like I really wanted to prove everyone wrong and I knew I could do it. With my parents not raising me I didn't want him to be in a situation to be not raised by his own parents either."
Liz says she went to Bethany to learn how to become a good mum. "I wanted to learn the skills that I needed. Being an only child, I wasn't quite sure what to do." And she accomplished her goal.
Bethany Centre, a purpose-built maternity hospital run by the Salvation Army will close its doors on November 17, ending more than a century of service to young mothers.
The news sent ripples of apprehension throughout the social service sector, particularly those who work with vulnerable and at-risk pregnant young women. Some are outraged, others in despair.
"A lot of the women we look after have a history with Child, Youth and Family," says one health professional working at the centre, who spoke on the condition she was not identified.
"Some of the conditions enabling them to keep their babies are that they go to a residential place like Bethany, where they have parenting courses and 24/7 care," she says.
"What we are concerned about is that a lot of babies will be taken from their mums and taken into care."
Others are hoping the Government will step in and ensure the centre does not close.
"This is a real opportunity for them to do something for these women. Otherwise, all the talk about protecting the vulnerable children and the Green Paper is just lip service," another social worker says.
New Zealand has one of the highest teenage birth rates among OECD countries. In 2009, there were about 5000 teenage births. In Manukau alone, more than 600 teenage girls give birth each year.
The Ministry of Social Development has opened two supported homes for teen mothers in Auckland. One is run by The Taonga Educational Centre Trust, which opened its home in Manurewa to teenage mums this year. The house has helped ensure the welfare of 14 girls in the last nine months. The youngest is aged 14.
"It's a reality that children can be taken from their mums," says Erana Doolan, Taonga's chief executive. "Our aim is to keep babies with their mothers and support them to become positive and helpful parents to their children."
In the last year, Child Youth and Family Services has received almost 125,000 notifications concerning the safety of babies. Around 44 per cent of the notifications required further action by social workers, which meant an assessment of the family's situation and ensuring they got the support they needed.
Ms Doolan says the only reason CYFS was allowing the young women in their care to keep their babies was because they were with the trust.
The girls learn to bond with their babies and take care of them. Structures are put in their lives and rules are upheld.
"We take vulnerable, at-risk teen mums," she says. "They could be at risk from an oppressive environment at home, drug and alcohol in the home and there is nowhere else for them to go to stay with their babies. We teach them parenting skills.".
Many of the girls in this situation had nowhere to go. Some were homeless. Others could not go back to their homes or be supported by their whanau or families.
Some had been abused, or abused drugs and alcohol.
A social worker who also works for the trust, Wanda Tautari says the trust takes them out of their at-risk environment.
"It shows the young mothers that there's another way for them to take care of their babies by putting boundaries and structure in their lives for them," she says. "They are able to move forward. They actually get it."
Ms Doolan says the closure of Bethany Centre will put a strain on the few remaining alternative centres.
"We've been full all the way through. So often, when we get a girl out, we've only got the room to clean in an hour and we get another girl in," she says.
"I think they will find, with Bethany closing, that it will be hard. A lot of our referrals come from the CYF offices."
She says the Government needs to step up, especially as their budget would be wiped out by the progressive implementation of the law requiring them to pay their staff for sleeping-over supervision.
Gerry Walker, the Salvation Army's national manager for addictions and supportive accommodation services, doesn't think the impact will be huge.
"The reality is that you are looking at a house that is 98 years old. It's got a heritage listing. We can't do anything with it. And it's not conducive to running programmes for the 21st century. It's not in a community where these young women come from," he says."There's a disconnect."
Mr Walker says a review of Bethany's operations show a decline in the number of clients using the centre. That, plus the fact that it had been running at a significant deficit for five years, led to the decision to close.
"This is a cost The Salvation Army is no longer able to sustain," he says.
The Salvation Army is in talks with other service providers for the transition of the young girls who are still with them. As of the announcement, the centre had nine young women in residence.
Some would be ready to return to their communities when the centre closed.
CYF northern regional director Grant Bennett says they have been looking at the impact Bethany's closure would have and are taking steps to alleviate them.
"Across Auckland there are a number of services that young mums can access," he says.
Youth Horizons' Ka Awatea Te Kainga programme has been tapped to take in one of the girls from Bethany. Programme manager Kapaleile Su'a says they are able to take five girls but only have four at the moment. He says the closure would not put pressure on them but that's because their contract was limited.
"Our focus is on those young women who are more likely in their third trimester or just had given birth to their babies," he says.
"We'd like to have a few more homes but it's down to whether there's opportunity for the Government to support that, I suppose."
Apart from Taonga Trust and Youth Horizons, the Merivale Whanau Development Centre provides a six-month residential programme for up to 12 families.
The Granger Grove Parenting Programme in Otahuhu is a 12-month residential programme for up to 11 mums, run by the Anglican Trust for Women and Children.
The Auckland District Health Board also has the National Women's Health Centre providing comprehensive antenatal and postnatal maternity care.
"Removing a baby from the care of its parents will only be considered when all other options have been exhausted," says Mr Bennett. "Our social workers will do all that they can to ensure the safety of the vulnerable infant so they can stay in their parent's care. Wherever possible a safety plan will be put in place with the mother so they can remain together."
The Salvation Army is also looking at opening a community-based centre like Bethany. But at the moment, there is no certainty.
Liz is thankful Bethany was there to help her cope with the biggest challenge of her young life. "It's really sad. Surely, someone could do something," she says. "I just think if someone could do something about it, it would be so beneficial to so many people. It's not just the mums and the babies it makes a difference to - it makes a difference to all the family."
THE COST
Studies show unsupported teen mums are:
-Nine times more likely to have no qualifications
-Twice as likely to suffer from major depression
-Twice as likely to be substance-dependent
-Three times more likely to be suicidal at times
-Three times more likely to be dependent on benefits
Source: Ministry of Social Development, www.msd.govt.nz