Since our doors opened in 1982, Villa Majella of Santa Barbara has supported hundreds of women 18 and over in their decision to carry their babies to term under difficult situations, whether they choose to personally parent or lovingly select an adoptive home.
Through our maternity home program, we equip and empower pregnant women. We provide a safe, supportive, and structured living community, pregnancy care, educational programming, and guidance to ensure stability during pregnancy and beyond. Our professional staff serves to inform, encourage, and assist our clients by providing them with extensive services within a safe and nurturing environment that fosters their physical, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
Villa Majella ensures that all mothers are prepared for the labor and delivery process and equipped with the basic needs that will support them during their hospital stay. When women have no supportive family or friends, Villa Majella staff transport and accompany them to the hospital. Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Women’s Services Birth Center provides labor and delivery medical services and ensures our mothers and babies are in good care.
In addition to prenatal education, we provide breastfeeding, baby classes, and hands-on experience in newborn care, so our mothers-to-be can feel confident in their ability to meet their baby's needs. Visiting nurses also provide follow-up consultation when a mother returns to Villa Majella after her baby's delivery.
Through our partnership with New Beginnings Counseling Center, Villa Majella offers weekly in-house parenting classes. The Life Skills Parenting and Education Program presents our mothers with “hands-on skills that help them define effective parental roles, end destructive behaviors, shift their thinking, and develop new perspectives to improve their lives.” We also offer a parenting certification program through Family Services Agency in Santa Barbara. This 14-week course highlights maternal-child bonding, normal child development, and positive approaches to parenting.
Villa Majella empowers women to address addiction and substance use disorders by providing a clean and sober living environment. When a resident struggles with addiction or substance use disorders, we facilitate her enrollment in the Project Recovery Perinatal Program. We encourage her to take responsibility for her own step work, attendance at meetings, and sponsorship. Villa Majella also hosts recovery-based classes that introduce women to 12 step recovery programs.
At Villa Majella, we respect each woman's spiritual journey. We encourage women to develop a spiritual support system as they encounter the many stresses involved in becoming new mothers. Volunteers offer an in-home bible study. In addition, although not mandatory, we encourage our residents to attend a worship center of their choice for spiritual sustenance and encouragement.