Driving down the road one morning, after dropping my son off at the babysitter’s for the day, a school bus stopped to pick up a student. I saw a young woman waiting under one of the bus shelters that offer free advertising. She had a stroller with a small baby wrapped in blankets, diaper bag and a few other odds-and-ends that couldn’t be made out in the early morning mist. I thought she was maybe putting an older, elementary aged, child on the bus. But then she gathered up her various bags and began pushing the stroller across the road toward the school bus.
As I watched her load the stroller, presumably with help from someone inside the bus, and step onto the bus after it, I wondered what her life must be like.
How was this young mother handling life as a teenager in high school and caring for a new child?
Baby Talk Helps Young Moms in St. Mary's County Finish School
As the bus pulls away and traffic resumes it’s regular crawl, I can almost picture her heading into school: Her book bag slung over one shoulder, diaper bag on the other, and baby the stroller, she walks through the doors of her high school trying to give her and herself baby a brighter future than teen parents used to be able to hope for.
Years ago, this young woman may have been sent away to a relative’s home to have the baby and then relegated to dead end jobs to make ends meet, never accomplishing a high school education. Today, teen moms like her are able to stay in school because of programs such as Baby Talk.
Offered in all three of St. Mary’s County, Maryland's public high schools, Baby Talk is an in-school daycare for teen mothers to bring their babies to so that they can keep attending classes and graduate. They are given a much more hopeful future then their predecessors had. While Baby Talk is a positive program in the lives of these girls and their children, Katherine Hankey is the woman who is guiding some of these girls through their first attempt at mother hood.
Katherine is making sure these young women know how to change diapers and give their babies proper nutrition. The girls have questions and sometimes no one to ask except Katherine. She steps in and gives them the knowledge they need to succeed as new moms while still struggling to stay afloat at school.
Meeting a Need
Baby Talk began at Leonardtown High School in 2000 under the Safe and Stable Families Grant and was overseen by the St. Mary’s County Health Department. It was a five year grant, and helped the county establish Baby Talk facilities at each of the three high schools. When the grant ran out in 2005, the School Board took over and the program is now guided by their guidelines and regulations. As a result, there is more freedom in Katherine’s curriculum decisions as well as policies for the teen mothers to follow – such as not being allowed to bring friends into the daycare room because “well, this isn’t show and tell.” Also, Baby Talk can now offer their services to the school faculty as long as there is space available.
The program isn’t free to students or faculty. The cost for faculty is $140 per week since, as Katherine says, they’re “not trying to compete or take business away from other day cares.” Rather they’re offering an option and convenience for the faculty. Students pay a maximum of $100 per month, and there are criteria and incentives that make the price go down from there. Students who have good grades and attend school regularly have a reduced cost. However, for some students the money is not coming out of their pocket, so the incentives only work on those who are truly devoted to completing their education and being successful. If they’re on free or reduced lunch, a percentage of the cost is waived. Students may also apply to the Department of Social Services for a child care voucher.
Make it Happen
Katherine has been the instructor of the Baby Talk program at Chopticon High School in Helen, Maryland since 2001. Katherine, who is assisted by two child-education certified aides, says that they “have to take on the nurturing role for the teen parent as well as the baby and sometimes you have to stop and say ‘she’s only 15, someone’s probably never told her this.” Katherine has worked with young mothers who have suffered abuse, mothers who have been raised by elderly grandparents, and mothers who are generally neglected.
Katherine reminisces about a 14 year old mother whose child was in Baby Talk. The young mother and student needed to make cup cakes for extra credit in one of her classes. She had never made cup cakes before and had no idea what to do. “I showed her how on her lunch break,” says Katherine with a smile.
The young family lived with the 14 year old’s grandmother at the time. It was discovered that they were both being neglected. Sadly, Social Services had to be called.
Katherine remembers the girl’s need for a strong mother figure. While making cupcakes in the Baby Talk classroom, “the girl said ‘this is like something I’d do with my mom so you’re like my mom now.’ It made you want to cry when she left.”
Despite Katherine’s mentoring and the hope Baby Talk gave the girl, it didn’t help the situation at home with the abusive grandmother. They were moved to a home for teen parents in DC.
“People don’t see that side of it, they don’t go into the community and see the situation that child might be in,” Katherine says.
Bumps in the Road
Baby Talk is often the envy at conferences that Katherine attends. Many Maryland counties offer an early Head Start program for the children of teen mothers. Other counties offer a variation of the Head Start program, but they are still separate from the young mothers’ school. The problem is, the girls can’t always make it to the center that is away from their own schools. With some of them too young to drive, and others who simply can’t afford a car, the only option is to stay home with their child. The allure of Baby Talk is that it is in school with the girls and is accessible and visible to them.
As much help as Katherine knows the program gives, she wishes she could make a few changes to help the students even more. “I’d make it mandatory to attend the parenting and prenatal classes” she says with a bit of regret in her voice. The classes are offered during the student’s lunch times, but they cannot be made mandatory because they are not a required portion of the curriculum. The classes are supposed to cover the prenatal well being, the birthing process and pain management, postnatal well being for the new mom and parenting skills. While Katherine attempts to create a plan for the day’s lesson, she tailors each class – often on the fly – to what the girls have questions about or need to know.
“Sometimes,” says Katherine with a smile, “it becomes a half-hour session of them talking about what their boyfriend did or how the baby’s father dumped them.” But Katherine realizes these new mothers need that outlet as well, so she lets them have their time.
While she can’t require the teen parents to attend the classes, she does the best she can to get them important information. She strives to stay abreast of changing child care news and information, often giving the mothers printed out information when they come to pick up their children. She hands out copies of new car seat regulations, first aid and CPR tips, feeding tips and other important parenting tid-bits that fall through the cracks of the girl’s traditional education. Katherine’s office is lined with resource books guiding the young mothers from conception through the first year of their child’s life. The girls, and their families, are always welcome in Katherine’s office to ask questions or get advice.
The program was not always met with open arms, and in some cases still isn’t. When Katherine attends Chopticon’s open house night, she often overhears parents and new students wondering aloud at why the child care center is there at all, much less at that particular location – in the front of the school, very close to the main office. She says that the faculty has accepted the program, some begrudgingly realizing it’s not going away, and other acknowledging its importance. Faculty members who bring their own children to Baby Talk have mentioned to Katherine, on more than one occasion, that they don’t know how the teen moms do it, balancing raising a baby with being a teenager and going to school.
There are currently 15 students at Chopticon who are either mothers or expecting. These 15 new mothers, each with her own hopes and dreams, her own problems and stories, have a better potential for a bright future for themselves and their child. Nationwide there are over 820,000 teen girls becoming pregnant each year and only one-third of them graduate high school*. Hopefully the young women who participate in Baby Talk become some of the few who do succeed after teen pregnancy and break the mold of welfare dependent, unwed and unhappy mothers.
Teen pregnancy is something that happens regardless of efforts to educate teenagers about the life-changing responsibilities and other implications. People like Katherine Hankey, and the Baby Talk staff, care about these girls and will help them through their challenging new role as mother while still fulfilling that familiar role as student. I can only hope that the young woman I saw waiting for the school bus continues to push against the odds and creates a better future for herself and her child.
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