SETON EFFORT

Mommy Project provides women with childbirth education

Aims to help underprivileged gain parenting skills

BY KAREN DIETLEIN
STAFF WRITER

Kira Berkeley was scared when she found out that she was pregnant. Unmarried, 20 and just entering a nursing program at Russell Sage College in Troy, she knew little about what it was like to have a baby.

Searching for birth education classes in the Capital District, she found that because of her age and inexperience, she felt left out of the traditional offerings, which focused primarily on birth itself and not on the nitty-gritty of daily caring for an infant.

"One class suggested that all the women were 30, 35 and would have their husbands with them," she recounted, noting that such a situation made her feel out of place.

Mommy Project

Then Ms. Berkeley became part of the inaugural class of the Mommy Project, a childbirth education program at Seton Health in Troy. It is dedicated to teaching underprivileged mothers the necessary parenting, financial management and psychological skills they will need to raise healthy children.

According to Lori Bobersky, a social worker at Seton Health and co-instructor of the program, the Mommy Project "makes sure the girls have supplies, support, education, money and goals." Keeping young moms goal-oriented is primary for the program, she added, Bobersky, so they don't enter or re-enter the welfare system.

At risk

Teen moms are especially susceptible to dropping out of school, becoming the subject of domestic violence, abusing substances and enrolling in state welfare programs.

"A lot of the time, the baby's father isn't involved, the moms don't have money or support systems to buy things for the baby, and they don't have a person to teach them how to raise the baby," Ms. Bobersky said.

Ms. Berkeley counts herself as lucky. Her fiancee is involved with prenatal care, her family supports her decision to keep her child, and she's currently developing a plan with advisors at Sage that will allow her to complete a nursing degree while caring for her child.

Buffet style

Kelly Duheme, a nurse and childbirth educator for the Mommy Project, likens the classes to a "buffet," saying that participants "take away what they need and use it. And, from what I've been hearing, they are using it."

It's important for teen moms to be comfortable with what's happening to them, she continued, and it's crucial to eliminate anxiety, fear and ignorance of the childbirth process.

"I hope when they go into labor, nothing comes up that scares them," she said. "When you take the mystery out of something, you also take away the fear. I hope the girls come out of birth remembering a great experience. We can't change the fact that they're pregnant, but I want them to look back and relive a happy memory. Hopefully, we've given them the tools to make it that way."

Making it right

Ms. Berkeley, a parishioner of Christ Sun of Justice parish in Troy, is making plans to marry after the birth of the baby. Although she was originally skeptical about her fellow parishioners' response to her status as an unwed mother, she said that no one in the parish has judged her negatively.

As for herself, since she has been pregnant, she has felt a "craving" to go to Mass more often.

"I don't know if it has anything to do with the pregnancy," she remarked, "but I do feel blessed. Not everyone can have children, and God chose me to have one. It's in my prayers every night. Hopefully, I can live up to the expectations of what He wants."

(For information about the Mommy Project, call Lori Bobersky at 268-5628.)