BOYLE HEIGHTS : Program to Educate Future Mothers

Pregnant teen-agers in at least three local high schools will get a chance to learn more about becoming better mothers and delivering healthy babies.

White Memorial Medical Center has received a $10,000 grant from the March of Dimes Campaign for Healthier Babies to send a nurse to the high schools over the next year. Nurse Janet Byers began the program at Lincoln and Riley high schools Thursday morning and hopes to visit Garfield and Roosevelt high schools.

The program is the first of its kind offered by the medical center, said Melanie Thiel, family education coordinator at the hospital.

“Teens are more at risk during pregnancy because of their age, educational level and socioeconomic level,” Thiel said. “They are more likely to deliver premature and low-birth-weight babies, and they’re a greater risk group for using drugs, smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol.”

Byers, a registered nurse who teaches Lamaze and is a consultant for new mothers on breast-feeding, will conduct weekly classes at each of the schools. Classes will focus on nutrition, fetal growth, the labor and delivery process, breast-feeding and baby care.

“Statistics have shown that prenatal education helps reduce the chances of low-birth-weight and premature babies in any age group,” Byers said. “This population tends to not seek prenatal care, or they’re not plugged into a program that’s geared toward their age group, so they don’t get this information.”

Last year at White Memorial, 295 girls who were 16 or younger delivered babies. In 1992, County-USC Medical Center, which delivers more babies than any other hospital in the nation, delivered more than 9,500 babies to girls 17 or younger.

Thiel gathered statistics from the targeted high schools that showed that in 1991-92, the most recent school year for which numbers are available, 200 pregnant teen-agers were at Lincoln High School, 85 were at Garfield and 100 were at Roosevelt. At Riley High School, which takes pregnant teen-agers from three areas of the city, 700 were enrolled that school year.

“We’re hoping to reach at least 200 teens, and possibly 500,” Thiel said. “A lot of it depends on how soon we can meet with the girls.”

In addition to the classes at each school, White will offer pregnant teen-agers a series of Lamaze classes. The $20 fee will be reimbursed if the student attends all classes and buys an infant car seat; if the student does not buy a car seat, hospital officials will give her the seat and retain the $20 fee.

Information: (213) 268-5000.