Some members of the public find it hard to sympathise with a young mother who is struggling to support the one or two children she already has yet continues to have children.

However, local activist Sheelagh Cooper said she believed that these women were deserving of sympathy because they were just trying to fulfil their hopes and dreams of falling in love and creating a complete family.

"I believe that the reason why women continue to have children in this community, long after they cannot support the ones they already have, is because of the never ending hope which comes with each baby which is that it may come with a dad who will stay and marry them and somehow support the family,'' she said.

"This hope or fantasy seems to be a dynamic in these situations.'' And these women often do not learn from their previous mistakes, instead preferring to try, try and try again, she noted.

Mrs. Cooper said: "I see it over and over, and women experience it over and over, but it does not seem to affect their assessment next time it happens.

"There's a missing link there in their analysis of the likelihood of this kind of thing coming to a successful solution.'' But it was not just the women who should be targetted for blame, she stressed.

Men were just as responsible for the number of struggling single mother families on the Island.

Mrs. Cooper noted: "The bottom line is that Bermudian males often have no sense of responsibility for the children they create.'' And she pointed to the Island's history as an explanation as to why they felt this way.

"If you look historically at the dynamics that were created many generations ago with the slave owners,'' she said, "you will see the pattern duplicated today.

"One slave owner may have owned the women and the children while another slave owner owned the father. It was therefore the slave owner's responsibility to look after the women and the children.'' Mrs. Cooper continued: "This created a matriarchal society where the women looked after the children and the fathers had no direct link to or responsibility over them.

"We have sown the seeds of what we are reaping now.'' The problem was not peculiar to Bermuda, she added, as other communities with a history of slavery had males who exhibited similar behaviour.

Articles on the plight of single mothers in last week's Royal Gazette raised a number of issues which Coalition for the Protection of Children chairwoman Sheelagh Cooper will this week seek to address.

Today Mrs. Cooper tackles the reasons behind why young mothers continue to have children when they cannot support the ones they already have. Tomorrow she will she shed some light on why mothers in financial hardship still splurge on "unnecessary'' items.

Sheelagh Cooper HEALTH HTH