#OneRouge Community Check-In - Week 103

Week #103

'Teen Pregnancy & Maternal Health'

Quick Links: Notes, Community Announcements

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Meeting Notes

Sula Spirit (Birth and Death Doula, Founding Director of the Na’Zyia Doula Collective (2007-2012) – the first Doula Collective of Color in the State of Louisiana)

I really want to first offer compassion and love to mothers, particularly to teen mothers. In my early work in 2006 I saw the disparity with teenage mothers. My first two or three years I didn’t accept any funds because these girls needed compassion and strength. What they did to get pregnant we’ve all done. They didn’t need judgment. They were not given as much compassion and help due to their age. We created the first doula collective of color in the state of Louisiana. There were seven of us. When it comes to teenage pregnancy I have a deep heart for our young women. I would love to see a program be resurrected for teenage mothers. Since the collective has dispersed, people have gone on to do their own work in our collective. One of our sisters is about to open a birthing center in New Orleans. It’s important that we don’t judge. My youngest mother that I helped birth was 13. No one showed up for her. Her family felt a way about her being pregnant. We don’t know the circumstances. We do know that the divine mother of creation don’t make mistakes. If a child is coming into the world there’s attention that’s needed because we believe that’s an ancestor coming back into the world. We see births as a sacred event. The fathering is extra crucial. We need you to stand by the women and be present. We need you to really be there for those that you love that may be bringing forth a child. I’m thankful to be here. In the death world, as we help people escort themselves to the other side, many people run away. I want to give a great consciousness. If you have a loved one or a friend who is ill, even if you can’t get to the hospital, you have no idea what that means to someone who is facing mortality. It’s a beautiful journey either way. Even for our doggies and cats when they pass away. Bring a mother and father’s love to any teenager you know. Most are dealing with great shame. Let them know it’s okay and it happens to the best of us. It’s a delicate place. I’ve been talking about forming a love circle for the young women. I see as I travel around the world the pain of the mother and father.

Andrew Bagnato (Nurse Supervisor, Partners for Family Health)

We’re part of the louisiana department of healths family bureau. This is a no cost voluntary program to improve the health and well being of pregnant. FAmilies are paired with registered nurses and they provide services to help them and parents to reach their parenting goals. Services provided include health, education and coaching, positive parenting skills, personal goals such as returning to work or school. Health education and coaching, parenting skills, mental health screenings. I want to ask you all to spread the word and refer people to our program. A lot of people will qualify.

-Joined by Alfrieda Judson - Alfrieda.judson@la.gov - Works in the Baton Rouge region.

And Tracie Ingram - Tracie.Ingram@la.gov

Frankie Robertson - Founder and president of The Amandla Group. Through my work I provide policy services. I represent organizations like March of Dimes, American Diabetes, etc. There are a lot of opportunities at the legislature right now. For teen pregnancy there’s talk about providing support for moms and dads and social support to families in general. Looking at this from a total approach. Why mom is having to work multiple jobs. Closing the wage gap by raising the minimum wage. As we’re looking at the social determinants of health, our state is one of the poorest, and teen pregnancy is a driver for lack of social mobility. Maternal mental health is a serious issue our society does not pay enough attention to. Just think about a young person or a child that has had a baby and the limited resources they have, think about how much stress that has to be for a young person. Addressing the needs of that family is very important. We know mental health and substance abuse disorder are linked. There’s a donor breast milk bill and a paid leave bill. They are all still alive and well. The social supports are very important for helping families have the humanity they need to survive and thrive.

QUESTIONS

Who are you serving and how do we get to that place

Andrew - parents struggling with the stresses of children in the criminal justice system. We accept everyone who qualifies for the program, regardless of any circumstances. We do mental health screenings. We have an amazing mental health team here.

We have the parents as teachers which assists all mothers. Not first time pregnant, but delivered for the first time. It doesn’t many how many they’ve been pregnant with. There’s a special criteria for those moms who may have delivered and the child did not survive, they are still considered a first time mom. We accept everyone. My job is to go out in the community to find what they need. Our job is to make sure the family unit and the mother uses her critical thinking skills to make the decision.

The challenge is that we have to open more minds. Yes, being pregnant as a teen is hard. My challenge now is we have a lot of high school babies that are pregnant and I cannot get the schools and upper levels to get this information into the hands of the parents, the teachers, etc to let these people know they are not alone. Once they get pregnant their self image is lacking.

Andrew - must be a first time mom, less than 29 weeks pregnant, and mom to be eligible for medicaid, wic or SSI. We have mothers as young as 11. We have first time mothers of all ages. As long as you meet those criteria, you qualify. There’s talk we might get a parents/teachers program in the Baton Rouge area. We have people who graduate and then go on and have a second or third child. We don’t have any age cutoff. On May 9 we’re going back into the homes.

Sheretta - How are we defining teen pregnancy. As we are thinking about this issue, how are we conceptualizing teen pregnancy? Is the driver of poverty that teenagers get pregnant or is there some deeper issue.

Traci Vincent - I was personally impacted by teen pregnancy. I think economic development or lack thereof creates several symptoms and one of those is teen pregnancy because it ripples into the family of things that can happen. I just feel like the resources would be present if the economic resources were available in the city.

Is there any recent studies out there about trends in age gaps between teen mothers and the fathers? I ask because I’ve heard historically it often trends that fathers are 3-6 years older.

Alfrieda - I don’t have any data, but we encourage whoever the father is to be within the lives of both mom and babe. I presently do not have any data on that. We follow mom until the baby is 2 years old.

Andrew - We track how much we help parents be economically self-sufficient, whether there’s domestic violence in the home. We don’t have anything about that specific data, but that could be happening at the clinical level during the home visits.

Helena - I’m not a teen mom, but I was 21, and I went through the young mother process. Yes there is support, but after I had the baby all my medicaid disappeared. While I was pregnant, I had the services, but after my son came out, I had to do it all on my own and I was a waitress. This was almost 11 years ago, so it could have changed by now. There are just so many things that happen after birth. If we’re going to care for the child, we have to care for the mother after the birth as well.

Are there any legislative issues for us to be aware of?

Andrew - We do have a legislative wing of the agency. We don’t really track the areas that you just brought up. I would have to check in with our legislative.

Alfrieda - there are two bills in the legislature now that are in depth about women’s health.

How do we get to a place where we are centering people and funding programs that are there to help? What can we do to encourage change that will allow mothers to parent their children in a way that’s not just supported for the first six weeks, but for all their lives?

Frankie - Collaborative engagement is important. WE know things like this are powerful. When we look at some of the roadblocks that we need, we often see some of the pushback coming from the business community. Yesterday we were supporting the paid leave legislation and there is resistance there. I would say for us as consumers, economics is important. If we are very passionate about these things, we have to go to our employers, the companies we patronize, we have to ask these questions. Look at the companies that are not at the table and ask why they are not there. As far as moms, we have to change the narrative. There shouldn’t be any shame. We have to unlearn so much that is outdated and damaging and we have to be intentional and look at the things we’re taking in. How do we do a better job educating ourselves? We have to unlearn a lot of things.

Casey - There are these enormous think tanks that get together and get with state lawmakers to get them on the national agenda. I don’t understand why there’s such a concervative movement against abortion when you’re forcing someone’s hand to do what they don’t want to do?

The whole movement has been steeped in white supremacy. The plantation economy is alive and well.

Frankie - Being in the capitol, yesterday they voted no to increase minimum wage and commerce voted to increase harmful payday lending. And you have the business lobby saying we don’t think there should be a minimum wage. They also voted down the threshold for the gig industry. There’s a lot of hypocrisy that’s enraging. The people are hurting. We have to continue to apply pressure and expose it. First we have to admit it’s a problem.

Rev. Anderson - One of the things that we are so woefully poor at is making the intersections clear to people. You cannot say you’re pro life but you’re in favor of killing everyone in angola. We want people to have babies but we don’t want to take care of them. It all goes back to voter engagement. If we keep allowing people to not vote, where we make facts clear to people. This space allows people to have completely different lines and say facts to matter. It ties to all of our drivers, at the end of the day when we’re not putting them all together, it doesn’t end up being valid. I love the work that Frankie does, but fighting for women’s health has been nightmarish.

SK Groll - I wanted to specifically lift up the lack of education in schools. The programming and educational resources that would determine how they want people to be is not reflected in schools. The governor funds abstinence education and that’s what’s allowed in schools. On tuesday, the house committee will hear the bill about prohibiting gender identity in schools and prevent teachers from discussing their own identity. I want us to not think about these things as isolated issues.

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