September 9, 2025

How EveryStep Changed Mala's Life for the Better Twice

DES MOINES, IOWA  --  Mala Cho doesn’t sugarcoat her past.  “I didn’t always make the best choices in life,” she says, “I was 15 when I got pregnant ... I was a teen mom.” 

Support, she says, was hard to find – both at school and at home. 

“I was just a child myself.  I was having a kid, I was still in school,” she remembers, “There was judgement.  People looking at you.  The first trimester was fine because I really wasn’t showing yet ... as I came into my second and third trimester, you couldn’t disguise it anymore.  I could hear people talking behind my back.” 

Her parents – Chin refugees from the Myanmar region – didn't take the news well at all, either, she says.  “As an immigrant, I think every family wants their children to be successful and to have opportunity.  Coming here to America, for us, it was to have a good education – a better education than our parents had,” she says, “in my parents eyes, they are thinking that I’m not going to reach the milestones or have the opportunity that they have in America." 

Lost and in need of help, Mala’s school counselor helped get her in touch with EveryStep and its visiting nurse program.  And that was how she met Jennifer and found the support she so desperately needed. 

"When I met Jennifer, my situation wasn’t good,” Mala remembers, “when I met her at my parents’ house for the first time, I didn’t feel any judgement from her at all.  I felt so connected right away.” 

Mala says that connection helped her finally open up about her struggles as a pregnant teen.  “I was more open to her.  No judgement was coming in - just support.  What do you need from me?  Is everything going okay in school?  Always just checking up on me,” Mala says, “Jennifer was the only support I had through my pregnancy.  Just checking in on me, seeing me, visiting me ... I think that was something that I needed.  I wasn’t always getting that from my parents.” 

And, suddenly, Mala says the clouds in her life began to separate and let the light in. “I always imagine if I hadn’t had Jennifer there through my pregnancy, who would have been there to support me?  Would I have made different decisions?  Would I have been the way I am?  It really makes you think. I’m thankful to Jennifer for sticking it out with me and not judging me at all but showing me compassion and support and helping me to know that it is going to get better – and it did.  It did.” 

Mala stayed with EveryStep through her daughter’s second birthday, taking advantage of the Stork’s Nest program to provide her daughter with a crib, car seat, diapers and more.  After leaving the EveryStep program, Mala followed her husband to Oklahoma for school where her family grew again with the birth of her second daughter.  After a few years in the southwest, Mala and her family returned to the cooler weather of Iowa.  That is when she crossed paths with EveryStep again.   

While searching for a job back in the metro area, a friend passed along an opening with EveryStep’s ‘First Five’ program.  Mala was hired as a Support Specialist, working from home while caring for her kids and helping clients over the phone. 

“When I saw that I was like ‘this is how I can give back to the community by providing support for the family or the kids.  I was like maybe this job is something I can work,” she says. 

In her role, she says she relies on her past experiences with EveryStep to bridge personal and cultural divides with mom and families.   

“I recently did have a client who had a kid and she was a minor,” Mala says, "When I called her, I told her I was a young mom, too.  I just told her: the situation is going to get better, it's going to get better.  We all have our good days and our bad days.  Our bad days don’t last forever, and our good days don’t last forever, either.  The situation that you are in here is not going to last forever.  Things are going to get better.” 

Her job with EveryStep helped bring her relationship with her parents full circle as well.  “My parents were shocked.  They were like, look at how far you’ve come.  You needed the support and now you’re providing back to the families.”