By Jessica Poe
A motherhood conference will be available at BYU for the first time.
The conference, presented by BYU”s Women Services and Resources, hopes to meet the needs of married students who are occasionally overlooked, said Erin Winters, graduate program coordinator for Women”s Services and Resources.
“We have a lot of programs and conferences that target the single people, but we didn”t have much for married women,” said Winters.
She came up with the idea of holding a conference designed especially for mothers early in the Fall Semester and has been preparing for it all year.
Once the idea surfaced, hundreds of girls voiced their desires for a conference to focus on their needs, Winters said.
She thought of 12 original topics for classes and had a ward of married students rate the topics in order of interest.
The top five choices are the classes offered at the conference: “Finding Joy in Daily Family Work,” “Teaching the Gospel to Young Children,” “Living on One Income in a Two Income Economy,” “Three Secrets of Childbirth Every Expectant Woman Should Know” and “Making Every Moment an Opportunity Situation.”
Though the program specifically includes mothers in its title, the target audience includes anyone who is single, married, pregnant or has children.
“This is perfect for anyone who wants to be a mother or is married to a mother,” Winters said.
Ginnette Methot, program coordinator for Women”s Service and Resources, said males and females should attend the conference as a form of preparation.
“I think people don”t prepare for the future enough because they don”t see the importance of it,” Methot said.
The conference will help people prepare and become aware of possible difficulties and solutions in family life, even if they are not in the immediate future, Methot said.
Kathleen Bahr, a professor in the Marriage, Family and Human Development, will teach, “Finding Joy in Daily Family Work.”
The class will explain spiritual dimensions, including the meaning and worth of daily family work, Bahr said.
She said there is relevance in the topic because daily family work that involves everyone and is necessary.
“It”s useful to set a clearer perspective as to why it needs to be done and it brings dignity to doing the work,” Bahr said.
The motherhood conference will be from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday March 29. Admission is free for all BYU students and their spouses.
The classes will be in select rooms on the third floor of the WSC; each class will be offered twice.
