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  • Title: Postpartum services for adolescent mothers.
    Author: Cartoof VG.
    Journal: Child Welfare; 1978 Dec; 57(10):660-6. PubMed ID: 738141.
    Abstract:
    The Crittenton Hastings House of the Florence Crittenton League, located in Boston's Brighton area has been serving inner-city teenage pregnant women in a day program since early 1973. The program's 400 or so young women are characterized as typically Black; 16 year old; resident of an inner-city neighborhood of Boston; and a 10th-grade public high school student at time of conception. Most come from welfare families, and most confessed that the pregnancy was unintended. The program aims to reach the young woman who traditionally drops out of school upon learning of her pregnancy; does not seek medical care until late in pregnancy; and rarely receives social services during this critical and stressful period. Program financing comes from the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Welfare; from private foundations; contributions; income from investments; and endowment funds. Program findings show that almost 80% of the mothers return to school soon after delivery, and 67% plan to continue education in a career school or college. Academic goals tend to be higher following program participation. 69% of the girls report using birth control devices after delivery. However, almost half of the mothers drop out of school and experience 1 more unintended pregnancy after 2 years of program participation. These alarming figures support similar findings in research conducted across the country and suggest that the benefits of a service program that ends at delivery are short-lived. Thus, a followup project was designed to change the statistics on school dropout and repeat pregnancy by extending services well into the postpartum period. Details of the followup project are described. Although the followup project is less than a year old, statistical and narrative records show that such intervention works, and that services must be offered aggressively even before they are asked for by the young mothers.
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