A report on HES Extension programs serving Missouri's families & communities

One-on-one mentors help girls leap from teenager to mother

Throughout her pregnancy - and since the birth of her twins three months ago- Maria Kain has met monthly with a group of young moms. They swap war stories about the front-line of parenting: sleepless nights and countless diapers. They dote and oooh and aaah.

Resource Mothers members visit Columbia's
Farmers' Market to discuss healthy food.

The group is comfortable for Kain. "Most of the girls I already knew from high school last year," she explained. High school junior last year. Mother of twins this year.

More than 10,000 girls across Missouri made the leap from teenager to mother last year. The numbers are increasing.

An HES program being piloted in mid-Missouri works with 35 of these adolescent mothers, including Kain. Resource Mothers pairs pregnant teens with volunteer mentors who see the teen through her pregnancy and into the baby's first year.

During a monthly meeting, the Resource Mothers' group cooks a meal.
Meeting topics range from nutritious eating to budgeting.

Mentors see that the pregnant teen visits the obstetrician and the new mom the pediatrician. Mentors are sounding boards. They help the young women tap into community resources. Some mentors have even coached their partners through labor.

What's more, the entire Resource Mothers family - all 70 of them - are invited to monthly group meetings.
"Girls in the program feel a lot of support," said Lynn Blinn Pike, the Human Environmental Sciences specialist who runs the program with assistance from a number of agencies, including the Missouri Department of Health, Division of Family Services, Parents as Teachers and school systems.

The one-on-one relationships Resource Mothers fosters set the program apart. What's truly unique, however, is the program's mission. Resource Mothers is actually a forward-thinking child abuse prevention program. Its tenet: Intervene with education and support while the teen is still pregnant and she's more likely to have a healthier baby. Healthier babies make for less stressful parenting. That in turn lowers the risk for child abuse.

"Research shows that if mothers have healthy babies and if they are knowledgeable about parenting, they're less likely to be abusive," says Pike. "And teenage mothers are at a high risk for abuse."

After one year, the program is measuring its success in many ways.

• The program's benefactor, the Children's Trust Fund, teamed up with the Division of Family Services to request that Resource Mothers start programs in three other areas in the state.
  
  
• Demand is so high Pike has expanded the roster to 35 girls though the program is only funded for 25.
  
  
• None of the participants is pregnant again. Closely spaced, repeat pregnancies are common among adolescent mothers, says Pike, whose parallel research program is assessing each young mother's attitude, pregnancy rate, and stress level.

"It's too early to call the program a deterrant for repeat pregnancies but the mentors certainly talk to the girls about birth control and their goals - college, work," says Pike.

Participants in the Resource Mothers program meet
for monthly social and informational meetings.

Ann Alberty is the nurse at Columbia's Hickman High School and one of the first adults many of the girls trust with news of their pregnancy. Lately, that means about 35 girls a year. Alberty has seen too many of those girls pass through her office pregnant, and then out Hickman's front door-holding not a degree but a diaper bag."We want to keep them in school, on track," says Alberty, who herself holds monthly support meetings at the high school for pregnant girls and new mothers.

For someone like Alberty, who is often the bridge between the pregnant student and her home, Resource Mothers is another much-needed option. "I'm always thrilled to refer girls to Resource Mothers," she says. "Those who have chosen to go with the program have loved it."

The mentors make the program. And most mentors have learned that the girls define their relationship.
"With time, I learned that Stacy would guide where we go," says Kim Paul, who is mentor to a 17-year-old with a three-month-old baby. "At first, I felt like a mentor but now we're friends."

Lynn Blinn Pike, at right, talks with program participants during a trip to
a grocery store. The group discussed healthy eating with a dietitian.

Successful relationships within the program - and not all of them tick - usually evolve into friendships. Though Maureen Coy has two children older than her 18-year-old partner in the program, the two have become fast friends, she says. "We talk on the phone often. Now she doesn't need so much information about the preliminaries of child raising. She just needs support."

Coy understands the need. She was a teenage mother herself, though married. "I was so young. I know how all of that is," she says.

As the program continues to grow, Pike is looking for a community agency in mid-Missouri to take it over.
"It's not extension's role to be a full-time service provider," says Pike, who is talking with Parents as Teachers about the program.

No doubt, the program should continue. Pike has been approached by CNN to be featured in a television story being developed on programs for adolescent parents.

Kain, the mother of three-month-old twins certainly wants the program to continue. Kain's mentor is also the mother of twins.

"At first I thought I would only like the group meetings," says Kain. "But it's been my relationship with my partner that I've liked the most. She makes my life easier. With little things, like working a double stroller or feeding two at once."I don't know what I'd do without her."