Mobile clinic helps pregnant teens get medical care

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

(6/21/06 - GARLAND, TX) -- When Maria Trevino learned she was pregnant in ninth grade, one of her worries was how she would finish school while raising a child.

An answer came when a teacher told her about a 33-foot vehicle that carries a health clinic to high schools in this Dallas suburb, bringing doctors to teen mothers and their babies.

"The van gave me the support to keep going to school," said Trevino, now 20. "You don't have to miss your classes to go to the doctor's appointment."

The clinic is just one way of helping teen mothers in Texas, which has the fifth-highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation, according to David Landry of the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit group that researches reproductive health.

The pregnancy rate for 15- to 19-year-olds -- which includes births, abortions and miscarriages -- is about 8 percent nationally and 10 percent in Texas. The rate has been decreasing since 1992, but teens' struggles remain.

Schools across Texas use different methods of helping teens get to clinics. In Fort Worth, for instance, pregnant students can take cabs or buses to appointments, said Nina Jackson, the district coordinator of adolescent pregnancy services.

There is also a clinic within walking distance of a Fort Worth alternative school for pregnant and parenting teens.

In Garland, the mobile clinic parks near one of four high schools for monthly visits. Girls walk from class to get prenatal and postpartum care. Doctors also talk about avoiding a second unintended pregnancy.

There have only been nine repeat pregnancies for girls in the program, a 3 percent rate, said Kathy Bennett, a social worker with Baylor Family Residency Program.

The clinic has also helped girls get prenatal care earlier.

"I would say that we are seeing more and more in the first trimester," Bennett said. "When we first started, we saw a lot of people in the last trimester. They were just showing up to deliver and having no prenatal care."

Before the clinic, many pregnant girls trekked across Dallas to a county hospital and spent a whole day away from school.

"They were missing classes; a lot of students wouldn't get prenatal care," said Gayle Millican, a grant facilitator in the Garland school district.

Millican said most students learn about the clinic through the district's New Horizons program, an initiative that provides parenting advice to teens.

The program is funded as part of the family practice residency program at Baylor Medical Center at Garland.

Program administrators say the clinic has served about 650 teens and 230 babies since it began in 2000. Bills go to insurance or Medicaid, and patients can pay on a sliding scale based on household income, Bennett said.

Evelyn Flores, a 16-year-old at Garland High School who had a baby girl in March, said she only misses a small portion of the school day to visit the clinic.

"It's hard getting a ride to places," said Flores, who was about four months pregnant when she began getting care at the clinic. "It was easier for me to be there. They're just there for us."

Trevino has graduated from South Garland High School and is taking community college classes in hopes of becoming a nurse.

"It was a very sad experience, but at the same time I think it was a good experience for me because I was going in the wrong direction," said Trevino, whose grades improved from Cs to As after she learned she was pregnant. "My life took a 180 degree turn."

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