Former Nurse Applies Her Skills in Opening Maternity Home for Crisis Pregnancies
Some personal history plus a quarter century in nursing gave Rene Lackey a direct understanding of just how many girls with unplanned pregnancies needed help.
“I had an unplanned pregnancy,” she said. “All along the way I always wanted to be a foster mom or have some type of foster ranch. That developed into caring for women and babies giving them a sense of self.”
She turned that vision into Amira’s House, a place for young women lacking the financial and knowledge resources to have and care for their babies. After filing the proper paperwork, raising initial funds, and building the infrastructure in 2019 and early 2020, she was able to secure a home in Keller in June 2020. When it was time to leave that facility earlier this year, the First Baptist Church of Keller provided its missionary home in Haltom City.
“We’re a faith-based place to take care of women and children,” Lackey said. “We care as much about the woman who has the unplanned pregnancy as we do the baby.
“For the woman we’re looking to provide a strong sense of self and be able to overcome things she’s had happen in the past, be able to parent with confidence, to have strong personal relationships and pursue career goals. They can come at any stage of pregnancy and stay until the baby is a year old.”
Moms are assisted with critical needs like breastfeeding, cooking meals, driving to the doctor, and budgeting. Lackey employs 3-4 paid staff on top of about 15 volunteers and more than 200 donors.
Amira’s House started with one mom and one baby in Keller and expanded to two of each in Haltom City, with a goal of three each by the end of 2023. Aided by a growing number of individual volunteers, churches, businesses, and grants, Lackey has been able to help 11 moms and their babies in just three years.
Lackey’s nursing skills in nutrition, mental health, and case management have come in handy. For anything she can’t address directly, she knows the right professionals who can.
“We focus on all aspects of their well-being,” she said. “We look at nutrition, provide budget coaching – really anything that will help them drive and live a healthy, productive life.”
Named for a Hebrew word meaning “princess” or “daughter of God,” Amira’s House aids the many moms who choose to keep their babies and those opting for adoption.
“One of our girls now is parenting with confidence and going to school,” Lackey said. “While she was with us, she got her driver’s license which she said she’d never have been able to do if up to her and her family. We also got a car donated to her.”
What makes Amira’s House unique from most facilities that offer young moms skills is the live-in setting. Lackey said it is one of only three maternity homes in all of Tarrant County.
Lackey has been living in the homes with the moms and babies but plans to hire a house mom soon so she can focus on the higher-end responsibilities of an executive director. Sometime in the future, she hopes to build a six-bedroom, 5,200-square-foot residential facility somewhere in rural Tarrant County to keep the hundreds of evicted moms and babies off the streets.
To create awareness and raise funds, Lackey joined the Keller, Metroport, and Northeast Tarrant Chambers of Commerce. She also speaks to rotary clubs and conducts special events, including the second-annual gala fundraiser scheduled for Oct. 14 at Texas Motor Speedway.
For more information, visit amirashouse.org, email amirahousedfw@gmail.com, or call Lackey at 817.683.1366.
