Saturday, May 6, 2000

Program gives teens dose of parental reality

By Diane Mouskourie
Staff writer

RAEFORD -- Shortly after being handed her new baby, 13-year-old Gillian Moore holds her close until she coos.

Like most new mothers, Gillian is excited about taking her baby home. “This is going to be fun,’’ she says.

Gillian’s “baby’’ isn’t a real newborn. It’s a computerized doll programmed to cry and react to the way Gillian treats it.

The dolls were recently given to Gillian and other Hoke County teens as part of a program designed to make girls and boys think about the consequences of having sex.

The program, called Baby Think It Over, is sponsored by the Blue Springs-Hoke Community Development Corp. Several agencies in Hoke County have joined to offer health, educational, and social services to teens in hopes of reducing the number of teen pregnancies in the county.

Hoke County ranks third in the state for the rate at which babies are born to girls between the ages of 15 and 19, according to the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Coalition of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Christina Davis McCoy, director of Blue Springs-Hoke Community Development Corp., said the program is meant to make teens think about the responsibilities that come with being a parent.

“Infants’ demands are unpredictable and must be met promptly. Infants require a lot of time and attention and infants change a parent’s life profoundly,’’ Davis McCoy said.

Gillian likes to listen to music, skate with friends and play basketball. She is a student at West Hoke Middle School.

She has a 16-year-old brother, but she hasn’t had much experience with small children. Still, she thinks she understands what it will be like to have her own baby for a weekend.

‘‘Having this baby will tell me if I want to have a child at this age, or if I want to wait,” she said.

Gillian and the other teens picked up their babies at the development center’s office in Raeford.

Each of the participants received a car seat, stroller, diaper bag, and the ‘‘care key” that they must place in the babies backs when they cry.

Social service

Brenda Moore, Gillian’s mother, works for a social service agency.

She has seen the problems that teen pregnancies can cause families, she said. She wants her daughter to learn what it means to be a parent before she makes a mistake.

‘‘This will be a good experience and hopefully teach her to make good decisions,” Moore said. ‘‘Most of the time teens are not prepared and don’t really know what it’s like. There is nothing they can do for that child that doesn’t require assistance from adults. It changes their lives and the children’s lives forever.”

Karen Wright, the program coordinator, talks to Gillian and the other teens about how to care for their babies. They will be graded on how well they care for them. If the baby is left crying for more than 30 seconds, the computer records it as abuse. If the car seat is not used when traveling around town, it is noted as neglect.

Gillian picks her baby up and learns how to put her in the car seat. The baby begins to cry. Gillian nervously looks for the care key and inserts it into the baby’s back. After about three minutes, the baby coos. Gillian breathes a sigh of relief.

Another 48 hours

Forty-eight hours later, Gillian returns the baby.

She said having the doll for one weekend was all she needed to know that she’s not ready for a baby of her own.

It cried too much and kept waking her up, she said.

She didn’t like carrying all the heavy baby stuff with her everywhere.

And she was upset because she couldn’t go skating, hang out with her friends, wrestle with her brother or play basketball.

‘‘I had to get up five times in the middle of the night,” Gillian said. ‘‘I don’t want any babies, and I don’t want to adopt any. I just want to get married and have cats and dogs.”

Copyright 2000 The Fayetteville Observer