Teen Pregnancy: Babies having babies

VALDOSTA — Christian Wyche was upset and disappointed when she learned she was pregnant.

At 19, a senior at Bishop Hall in Thomas County and with only five credits left, she planned to graduate in February.

Dr. Verna Wiggins, Bishop Hall assistant principal and counselor, told the teenage mother-to-be that despite the pregnancy, she could still finish high school, perhaps even earlier than planned.

Wyche is involved in a program where students go to various schools and work with children. Wyche works with teachers and paraprofessionals at Headstart. She is involved with 3- and 4-year-olds.

Wiggins said Wyche is learning skills she can use as a mother.

On Thursdays, Wyche meets with a social worker at the school. She learns about abstinence. The social worker offers encouragement to stay in school despite the unexpected pregnancy.

Wyche, whose due date is June 25, did not want to discuss the father of her unborn child, other than to say he is aware of the pregnancy, but does not want to be involved.

Wyche aspires to become a social worker. She wants to help children who might be in her situation or those who are abused. She wants to "show them somebody loves them."

Although she is tired, sleeping more and experiencing morning sickness, Wyche, in addition to attending school full time, works part time at a fast-food restaurant during the week and full time on the weekends.

Her 54-year-old mother, a diabetic, has been on dialysis for 13 years and Wyche cooks and cleans for her.

"Whatever she needs me to do, I do," Wyche said.

An older brother, who lives in Atlanta, helps as much as he can.

Wiggins told Wyche the pregnancy is not the end of the world and that everyone makes mistakes.

"She's ready to move forward and do what she needs to do," Wiggins said.

There are programs available in Thomas County to help Wyche graduate and raise her child. Programs provided through the department of health, Division of Family and Child Services, non-profits, churches, etc.

The SunLight team looked at programs helping pregnant teens inside our coverage areas – Valdosta, Dalton, Thomasville, Milledgeville, Tifton and Moultrie, Ga., and Live Oak, Jasper and Mayo, Fla., along with the surrounding counties.

Many of the same options are available in each county. A teen mother's chances of finishing school are better today than in previous generations, mostly due to improved technology that previously wasn’t available, said Donna Mitchell, guidance director at Colquitt County High School.

With the internet and other resources available, a pregnant teen can finish her high school education without returning to the classroom on campus.

“Before there was only the option of traditional school or GED; now, they have other options,” Mitchell said.

A student can return to the high school campus if she wishes but there are several other ways to get a diploma. These include dual-enrollment in high school and a local technical college, where a student can split time between the two campuses. Other options include taking college classes that will apply toward high school credits and taking them by computer through Georgia Virtual School.

“A lot of them do do that,” Mitchell said of the courses available online.

While pregnant or after giving birth, students at the high schools can have excused absences related to doctor’s visits or for time needed to care for the baby.

The flexibility available today helps teen mothers fit school to their schedule and Mitchell said some also work jobs.

“They’re having to mature quicker,” she said of the new moms. “They’re not only responsible for themselves, they’re responsible for their baby.”

School nurses and social workers stay closely involved during the expectant mother’s prenatal period and after she returns to classes.

“So there is not a break in their education,” Mitchell said. “The social worker works closely with our teen moms. (She) stays in touch with students during pregnancy and after.”

The degree of services offered to an individual student can vary from school to school and county to county.

For Lowndes County Schools, Sandra Wilcher, director of student support services, tailors everything to the student's needs.

She said the school system used to have a support group but found it didn't work as well as giving each teen mom individualized scheduled time.

"The girls had trouble bonding because their situations were all unique," Wilcher said. "Everybody is in a different place. We want to make it as easy a process as possible for them."

First, school counselors establish what the mom needs in terms of medical care, family or emotional support and then help them navigate the resources available outside of the school. In most communities, there are systems in place to help struggling or teenage mothers, and counselors make sure their students are aware of them, she said.

Academically, Wilcher said they may need to make modifications to their school schedule. The mothers can be put on hospital homebound after they have the child if necessary. Hospital homebound allows them to work on their school work from home or from the hospital.

"But it's really unique to each student depending where they are educationally or otherwise," Wilcher said.

The Valdosta City School System has an approach similar to Lowndes County. Deanna Folsom, city schools social services coordinator, said the city school system handles each situation on a personal level. She said it establishes what the teen needs then identifies the available programs.

First, the school system ensures the mother is receiving prenatal care. She puts them on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. WIC is a federal program that schools throughout the city and county use to provide proper nutritional health to mothers. Thomas County also utilizes this program.

Mothers receive vouchers that can be used to buy healthy food items. Folsom said the school system helps the mothers learn how to use the vouchers and prepare for being a parent.

"Unfortunately, kids don't come with a little instruction book, so there is a lot for (the teens) to learn," Folsom said. "For example, we had one young lady who was 18 and completely on her own. We took her to the grocery store, assisted her on picking out the appropriate foods and helped her keep up with her doctor's appointments. We try to give them some of the tools they need."

In Thomas County, 1st Option Care is a pregnancy resource center serving Thomas, Grady and Mitchell counties.

Executive Director Meghan Ridenour said the agency's mission is to bring compassionate help and hope to women and teens who are unprepared for pregnancy, to present sexual abstinence as a positive lifestyle for singles and to provide opportunities for healing and restoration to those who have been hurt by abortion.

In 2016, 1st Option served 52 females in Thomas County. This year, 48 have been served in Thomas County.

Two Thomas County Central High School teens have had babies during the current school year. At Bishop Hall, a charter school in the Thomas County system, one student has a baby and another is pregnant.

Wiggins said a social skills class taught to boys and girls by licensed social workers at the school "definitely focuses on abstinence."

If a Bishop Hall student thinks she might be pregnant, she is taken to the Thomas County Health Department by school personnel. If the girl is pregnant, she meets with school personnel to review her choices in completing her education.

"We try to put some plans together for them," Wiggins said.

Personnel at both schools have programs that help and encourage pregnant teens and those who have given birth to finish high school.

When teenage girls in Baldwin County face the realization they are pregnant, they luckily have a few resources at their disposal.

“First of all, we’ll talk to the child and see if they’ve talked to their parents about it,” said Ola Scott-Little, Baldwin County Schools social worker. “We’re not at liberty to call a parent unless we think the child or her pregnancy is in danger but they may say they came to talk to me because they want me to talk to mom about it. We’ll call mom to talk about it and let her know what next steps need to be taken as far as prenatal care and if she plans to finish high school, as well as options of actually obtaining her diploma.”

Students who would be hard-pressed to finish high school have the option of attending Foothills Charter School, a state-operated school offering high school courses at night and at the student’s own pace. In addition to Foothills, students can take part in a program that provides counseling and career advice to expecting and parenting teens.

They also make referrals to the Take Charge program, which is under the umbrella of Goodwill stores, she said. The program equips pregnant or teen parents in Baldwin County with the skills and resources needed to be a parent, while also pursuing their high school education.

"They provide parental counseling and coaching, educational counseling and coaching, family support, career planning, possibly placement assistance, and anything they can do to help a teen that’s expecting,” Scott-Little said.

In Tift County, should a student get pregnant, the teen is treated like any other student, said Stacey Beckham, Tift County School System director of communications.

The school will work with the hospital homebound services so the student can study from bed if she is on bedrest or are having health issues related to the pregnancy.

It also offers Tift Academy, an online school that lets students work at their own pace from home at no cost so they can complete their education and graduate with a diploma from Tift County High School.

Throughout the SunLight coverage area, schools help pregnant teens get the support they need. Whether it is a city, state or federal program, there are many options available, but Percy Chastang, program coordinator for the office of adolescent health, said access to services in South Georgia needs improvement.

Chastang said something such as limited transportation is a big issue for pregnant teens who don't have access to a vehicle and live in areas with no public transportation. Easier access to health services are also lacking. 

He compared smaller, Southern cities to places farther north. There are some schools in Atlanta that have clinics inside the school, he said.

"In Athens, there are teen centers right across from the high school where they can go to receive help that is confidential," Chastang said. "In smaller cities they have to go to the health department where they'll probably run into someone they know. There really needs to be more access to services and, really, getting past the stigma of the invisible line."

Abstinence or pregnancy: Invisible line may separate the two

There is an invisible line when it comes to the topic of preventing teen pregnancy.

Percy Chastang is the program coordinator for the office of adolescent health for the Georgia Department of Public Health. He teaches abstinence-based courses to schools in Lowndes, Brooks and Echols counties. The courses involve opening a dialogue about sex with students that isn't vulgar or immature, he said.

"Of course, we get kids laughing and making comments, but we try to talk to them about sex in an intelligent way," Chastang said. "We call it Abstinence Plus, which stops at the line of contraceptives. We don't openly discuss them or pass them out."

Chastang called speaking about contraceptives and safe sex the invisible line. He has been the adolescent coordinator for 17 years and said schools are afraid to teach students about contraceptives such as condoms and birth control because of the expected backlash from parents. 

He said South Georgia is mostly conservative and deeply religious, which makes talking about sex before marriage difficult. In North Georgia, there are models the South could follow that would make a bigger difference, but Chastang said South Georgia has been slowly moving in a more progressive direction.

"Seven years ago, I could barely get into the schools," Chastang said. "It was hard enough for me to teach classes without being monitored by counselors. We're definitely making progress."

Schools in South Georgia and North Florida focus primarily on teaching abstinence and telling students about the consequences of having sex at a young age.

After a student becomes pregnant, there are the many and various school programs helping pregnant teens by providing them with vouchers to buy healthy food, extra time to finish classes and special courses that teach them how to be a responsible parent.

Between the abstinence and parenting classes, something is missing. It is something all the schools inside the SunLight coverage area – Valdosta, Dalton, Thomasville, Milledgeville, Tifton and Moultrie, Ga., and Live Oak, Jasper and Mayo, Fla., along with the surrounding counties — struggle to talk about.

What's missing is teaching teens how to have safe sex, safe either from STDs or from prematurely bringing a new life into the world, Chastang suggested.

Despite the invisible line, there has been progress on lowering teen pregnancy across the state and nation. 

Teen pregnancy in the SunLight coverage area is mostly on the decline. In 1994, there were about 260 pregnancies from people between the ages of 10 and 19 in Lowndes County, according to the Georgia Department of Health. Last year, there were about 130, a decrease of more than 50 percent.

The trend follows for all other South Georgia counties in the coverage area. Whitfield County went from 174 teen pregnancies in 2012 to 137 in 2016; Colquitt County saw a 50 percent drop from 142 pregnancies in 2006 to 71 in 2016; Tift County went from 167 in 1994 to 59 in 2016; Baldwin County had 164 teen pregnancies in 1994 and 41 in 2016, and Thomas County went from 170 in 1994 to 46 in 2016.

North Florida is the exception. 

According to Suwannee and Lafayette County Health Department Administrator Kerry Waldron, the number of teen pregnancies is on the increase.

“We are seeing children get pregnant as young as 12 years old,” Waldron said. “Kids are having kids, and they are mentally not ready.”

According to Florida Health Charts, Suwannee County did not have any teen pregnancies for the age group of 12-14 in 2016 but did have a rate of 2.5 in 2015. The rate is determined by the range of total births divided by total populations per 1,000 people. 

Lafayette County had a rate of 5.8 in 2016. The Florida rate is 0.3 for that age group.

Suwannee County’s rate for pregnancies for the age group 15-17 for 2014-16 was 19.5 and Lafayette County’s rate was 22.1. 

Florida’s rate was 8.9.

“Nationwide and statewide, the rate has dropped,” said Deanna Mericle, advanced registered nurse practitioner. 

Mericle said she believes the drop is in large part due to the use of long-acting birth control methods.

“Our counties are not in sync with the rest of the country,” Mericle said. 

Unfortunately, she said, the first time most teenagers step into the health department, they are already pregnant. The health department offers multiple types of contraceptives including condoms, birth control pills, IUDs and implants. 

Mericle said, in Florida, minors do not have to have parental consent to get birth control. People seeking condoms do not have to have an appointment. They can ask a receptionist for a bag.

Waldron said the health department has given out 15,000 free condoms in the past year. 

“We encourage folks to come see us because if you are having promiscuous sex, which a lot of the teens are having sex without acknowledgement of the parents, that also increases our sexually transmitted infection rate, which is on the increase,” Waldron said. 

He said if the county does not change the way it educates teenagers, the county could see an increase in sexually transmitted infections, HIV and AIDs. 

Waldron emphasized the need to change the way teenagers are taught about sexual activities.

“Abstinence is being taught, but in reality that is not happening,” Waldron said. “If we continue to use the same methods, we will continue to get the same results.”

He said a community mind shift and an education mind shift need to happen. 

“We don’t want kids out there having sex, but kids are going to have sex, so how can we best equip them to protect themselves,” Waldron said.

Although Georgia is fairing better than North Florida, when it comes to teen pregnancy, preventive programs at schools mostly focus on abstinence and warning teens about the dangers of sex. 

"First and foremost, we preach abstinence until marriage," said Tammy Shealey, counselor for ninth- and tenth-grade students at Thomas County Central High School.

All TCCHS ninth-graders take a health class, where students learn about abstinence, sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy-preventive measures.

"Abstinence is our definite common thread throughout all of our programs," Shealey said.

Teen pregnancy numbers at TCCHS have dropped in recent years. Shealey said she considers the school's efforts a contributing factor. Numbers throughout the state of Georgia have also seen a decrease.

The Thomasville City Schools district offers a teen pregnancy-prevention program to middle-schoolers and high school students.

The middle school program, “Making a Difference,” and the high school program, “Be Proud, Be Responsible,” are funded through a grant, said LaToya Williams, who supervises the programs. She is the MacIntyre Park Middle School’s parent-involvement coordinator. 

The middle school curriculum is abstinence-focused, while the high school curriculum focuses on teaching personal responsibility for one’s actions and health, Williams said.

Currently, a total of 100 students, for both the middle and high school curriculums, are enrolled in the programs. Students must get parental permission to participate in the program, Williams said.

The middle school program runs six days and the high school program lasts 10 days.

The 2015-16 school year was the planning year for the program and was implemented the following school year. The 2017-18 school year, Williams said, could be the last year because of a cut in funding.

“We are looking to continue,” Williams said.

In Whitfield and Murray counties, sophomores from many high schools are required to go through a program called Teen Maze.

Organized by Family Connection, Teen Maze presents students with scenarios that aim to teach them how their decisions can affect them and others.

Some of the scenarios deal with teen pregnancy.

"One of them they call the 'baby belly section,'" said Tracie Hogan, Whitfield County Schools lead counselor. "The students, male and female, put on this apron, that simulates the size and weight gain during pregnancy. They have different ones, so you go through the first trimester, the second trimester, the third trimester. The students get a feel for what it is like to walk around (carrying) all that weight. They learn just what a challenge things (as simple as) tying your shoelaces can be."

Students learn babies born to teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely or to have a low birth weight.

"One of the scenarios is that the baby is born prematurely," Hogan said. "Neonatal nurses from Hamilton are there. They have models to show them how small premature babies are. They talk about the health risks premature babies face, not just as infants but later in life."

Some of the students try their hands at changing diapers. Others will sit down with financial planners and talk about how much it costs to raise a child.

"It really is an eye-opener for them," Hogan said.

Both Whitfield County Schools and Dalton Public Schools work with Family Frameworks, a local non-profit that aims to keep parents and children together, reduce divorce and build stronger families.

"They come in and do a seven-week course for our freshmen where they talk about healthy decision making in relationships," said Ivelisse Peters, a social worker at Dalton High School. "That covers topics such as teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, but it's much broader than that."

Dalton city school sophomores also go through Teen Maze.

The Tift County School System also uses Teen Maze, along with other overall health courses. The school system addresses issues surrounding teen pregnancy several times throughout a student’s path in the school system.

According to Stacey Beckham, director of communications, fifth- and sixth-grade students take a biology and reproduction class with a nurse to learn about the basics of how their bodies work.

Once in high school, ninth and 10th graders are required to take a health class, where reproduction is addressed as one component of overall health.

Like Whitfield and Murray county schools, ninth graders in Tift County also participate in the Teen Maze.

The maze experience starts off with a group of students at a party. Then, depending on which slip of paper randomly drawn out of a bag, they go to different stations where they learn about what happens to them.

All of the choices are completely random, and while some students make it all the way to graduation with no problems, most of the students experience, for example, teen pregnancy, getting a sexually transmitted disease, dropping out of high school, going to jail or even dying.

According to Deanna W. Folsom, social services coordinator for Valdosta City Schools, the city uses a curriculum called REAL Essentials in its health classes at the high school. It focuses on prevention, and on healthy relationships and good choices. It promotes abstinence as the best choice, but has other positive lessons regarding healthy relationships and how to decrease the risk of engaging in unhealthy choices.

Sandra Wilcher, director of student support services for Lowndes County Schools, said county schools teach Choosing the Best Journey in their health and personal fitness classes, which all ninth graders are required to take. Choosing the Best Journey's curriculum is consistent with Title V federal guidelines A-H for abstinence-centered, sexual risk avoidance education.

Highland Christian Academy in Valdosta does not have a sex education class but does offer health and anatomy classes.

“This is my first year at the school and introducing maybe some programs in that vein is something I’m researching,” said Cobie Tomlinson, HCA principal. “We want to do everything from a biblical perspective but also not be a school that creates a false bubble that the students live in that they're not prepared to live in the, quote unquote, real world."

Tomlinson said as far as he knows HCA has no pregnant student and therefore does not have a program established to assist pregnant teens.

For Valdosta and Lowndes schools, counselors seemed to handle discussions about sex with students on a personal basis. If teachers notice a problem with a particular student, they might bring the student to the attention of counselors who would open a dialogue with the student about options available for them. The counselors would then choose the best option moving forward.

Counselors find the personal approach works best for not only preventing teen pregnancy but also working with a teen who is already pregnant.

The SunLight Project team of journalists who contributed to this report includes Thomas Lynn, Patti Dozier, Charles Oliver, Will Woolever, Jessie Box and Eve Guevara.

Thomas Lynn is a government and education reporter for The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be reached at (229)244-3400 ext. 1256