Mama-Thon!

Okay, so I've been racking my brain trying to think of a good choice for Ragnell's Mama-Thon. There were quite a few possibilities, particularly the obvious ones: Martha Kent, May Parker, and so on and so forth. I figure other folks will go for them though, so I thought I'd pick someone that's more likely to be over looked.

Mama-Thon Ahoy!Fifteen year old Stephanie Brown was a normal girl, well, as normal as the daughter of a Riddler-wannabe hack pursuing her own career in vigilante-dom can be. However, two months after the earthquake hit Gotham, her life (and by extension, Tim Drake's) became even more complicated.

She was pregnant.

The father was a non-issue, jumped ship during the quake, so Steph bore the sole burden of decision making on her shoulders with only the support of her own mother and Robin to help her.



She knew she was in trouble, that she'd made a mistake. And that no matter what she decided, there were going to be consequences. She was a high school student who happened to be pregnant and this was a serious matter. A baby wasn't a doll or a toy, it was a life time commitment.



Pregnancy isolated her. She kept up her education at home. Her mother and "Alvin Draper" were her only real contacts. Her mother took her to explore the possibilities of what to do about the child. "Alvin" took her to Lamaze, gave her a shoulder to cry on. But the burden was on her.

It was a burden she took very seriously and she explored her options very carefully, before deciding the option she thought was best for the baby.







Ultimately, she made the choice to have the baby but give it up for adoption. She was very attached to it as her pregnancy moved on, and even dreamed about what it would be like to keep her child.

However, her dream (pictured above) quickly darkened, as she reminded herself of the dangers of her lifestyle and family connections. Beyond the already considerable challenges of being a teenaged mother, she was a vigilante with a criminal father. Her life was *dangerous*. So she made a clean break, she gave it up without ever seeing its face.



She was a young girl in a very difficult situation who made the hardest decision of her life. And by letting go, she gave her child the chance for a better life.

Happy Mother's Day, Steph.

(Panels taken from Robin 55, 61 and 65)