
DATE: Sunday, March 30, 1997                TAG: 9703300056

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL  

SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  149 lines

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: * CLARIFICATION A story in Sunday's Virginian-Pilot about Resource Mothers reported that a program run through Family Services of Tidewater Inc. was not funded by the state Health Department. The department does fund the portion of the program that provides services to teenage mothers. Correction published in The Virginian-Pilot, Tuesday, April 1, 1997, page a2. * RESOURCE MOTHERS KEEP YOUNG MOMS ON TRACK

Domonique Lewis lives on a Norfolk street where a clump of yellow pansies in a painted coffee can on a porch railing is the brightest spot. She has a 1-month-old daughter. She is 16 and unmarried.

She could be just another stereotypical pregnant teen-ager - giving birth to a too-small baby, dropping out of school.

But she's fighting the image.

Despite a difficult pregnancy that required bed rest, Domonique carried her daughter, Dinesia, nearly to term - delivering the 5-pound, 9-ounce infant just two weeks before her due date. She was back in school a month after her daughter's birth. And the baby, now 8 pounds with creamy brown skin and a head of soft black curls, is healthy and up to date on her immunizations.

Domonique has help from a woman named Beverly McInnis. McInnis, 38, is a resource mother to the teen-ager and 19 other girls like her, including two who live on the same street as Domonique.

It is McInnis' job to see that they receive early prenatal care, deliver healthy babies and return to school. Above all, she tries to make sure that they won't get pregnant again too soon.

McInnis works for a Resource Mothers program run by Norfolk State University. It is one of 25 funded by the Virginia Health Department. Four are in South Hampton Roads, another on the Eastern Shore.

Resource Mothers may be one solution to three chronic children's health issues in Hampton Roads: high teen-age pregnancy rates, the failure of many women to receive early prenatal care and too many underweight babies.

They are among the top 10 children's health problems identified in a February report by the Consortium of Infant and Child Health, or CINCH. The volunteer organization of regional agencies and private citizens has chosen problems tied to pregnancy as the focus of their attention over the next several years.

Resource Mothers is one tool they could use.

The programs hire women from the same neighborhoods in which the pregnant teen-agers live to serve as mentors, for an average salary of $6 an hour. Some programs, like the one at Norfolk State, have operated for more than a decade.

Their success can be seen in the numbers:

7 percent of babies born to program participants are underweight, compared with 11 percent of all teen-agers in the areas served.

The infant death rate for program participants is 7 per 1,000 live births, compared to 17 per 1,000 for all teen-agers in the area served.

Two-thirds of teen-agers in the program return to school after giving birth.

95 percent of program participants postponed a repeat pregnancy until the baby was at least a year old. Nationally, about 75 of teen mothers postpone an immediate repeat pregnancy.

The concept works because of the caring and support resource mothers are able to provide, says state coordinator Catherine J. Bodkin of the Virginia Health Department.

``They're models; they can spend the time. A lot of things that young people need depend on consistent caring over time.''

Says Agnes Richardson, who coordinates the Norfolk State program: ``It's a low-tech, high-touch approach to prenatal care.''

It is Sunday morning, and the spicy scent of frying sausage fills the small, spotless Norfolk house where 15-year-old Felicidad Bryant lives with her father.

McInnis is paying her weekly visit to Fe-Fe, a tiny girl whose pregnant belly barely swells beneath her loose-fitting dress. She's been in the program for three months - beginning during her critical first trimester.

``Now, Fe-Fe, I know progress reports came out this week,'' McInnis said. ``Hand it over.''

Fe-Fe gives it to her with a shy smile. She's done pretty well. Four As, a B, a C and two Ds.

McInnis focuses on the Ds. ``Do you need a tutor?'' she asks.

``Well. . . maybe in algebra.''

This is part of McInnis' job: To locate the educational, social or medical resources to help her girls succeed.

Through training at Norfolk State, McInnis keeps up on the constantly changing requirements of the government and community programs for which her charges qualify.

She helps her young mothers sign up for WIC, the free food program for low-income women and children, get their babies on Medicaid, take advantage of job training, reduced day care costs and transportation subsidies.

She hands out free bus tickets like candy bars and, if necessary, even drives her girls to doctor's appointments.

``She understands about being pregnant and having a baby, and that it's not all that bad,'' says Fe-Fe, sitting on the couch next to McInnis.

``But we can always do . . . what?'' McInnis prompts.

``Better,'' Fe-Fe says.

McInnis is careful not to judge her girls. Although she wasn't a teen-age mother herself, she grew up in the same poor neighborhoods she visits today. Her own daughter was born when she was 23. That girl is now 14 - the same age as some of her resource ``daughters,'' and a constant reminder of just how young these mothers-to-be are.

Initially, the goals are small: Teaching the pregnant girls to eat the right foods and get enough rest, make it to all their prenatal doctor appointments and keep up with schoolwork.

Once the baby is born, McInnis' focus shifts from the immediate to the future. She wants her girls to finish high school, go onto college, have a career, not just a minimum-wage job.

Statewide, 70 percent of resource mother program participants are still in school by their baby's first birthday.

Her main goal, McInnis says, ``is making sure they know that they will be the most important thing to that baby.

``I try to instill in them that they can always make their lives better, but they have to stay focused.''

While most Resource Mothers programs target only teen mothers, two in Hampton Roads, including one that began in January, reach out to older women. Neither is funded by the Health Department.

One is the 6-year-old Family Services of Tidewater program, which serves women in Virginia Beach. The other operates out of Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.

Its impetus came from neonatologist Edward Karotkin, who cares for the babies born too early and too small.

Karotkin received a $133,600 grant from the Virginia Health Foundation to hire 20 resource mothers to mentor 180 pregnant, low-income women in Norfolk's Park Place and Lambert's Point neighborhoods.

Eventually, he would like to see a Resource Mothers program available to every pregnant woman - regardless of income or age.

``What if we could get the (King's Daughters) circles involved in this? Women's groups? Church groups? Every group could sponsor one resource mother, collect the money to pay her and take care of everyone in that neighborhood,'' he said.

``If we can prevent one $300,000 catastrophe, we'd be in good shape.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Resource mother Beverly McInnis, center, pays a visit to Domonique

Lewis and her baby at the home of Domonique's mother, Thelma Lewis,

left. Workers in the Resource Mothers program serve as mentors to

pregnant teen-agers in their neighborhoods.

Graphic

RESOURCE MOTHERS PROGRAM

SOURCE: Virginia Health Department

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm] KEYWORDS: TEENAGE PREGNANCY