Virginia Moms Save Money, Lives by Helping Young Mothers-to-Be

NORFOLK, Va. —  When 21-year-old Diana Dowling got pregnant, she didn’t know where to turn for assistance and reassurance. Her mother often was too sick to help, and the baby’s father--well, what did he know about having a child?

Then Dowling heard about Resource Mothers, a program at the Eastern Virginia Medical School that recruits women who have had babies to become mentors to young, inexperienced moms-to-be.

Resource Mother Priscilla Kimbrough taught Dowling about the importance of prenatal care, drove her to doctors’ appointments and coached her through the natural childbirth of her daughter last summer. Kimbrough will continue to check on the family until Christina turns 1.

“It’s been a life-changing, life-saving experience,” Dowling said. “I felt comfortable talking to her because she’d been there; she’s a mother.”

The program is saving money and lives by improving the health of pregnant women and newborn children, said founder Dr. Edward Karotkin, professor of pediatrics at the medical school.

Doctors know that women who don’t receive prenatal care are more likely to give birth prematurely or deliver small babies. Low-birth-weight babies--those weighing less than five pounds--are more likely than bigger infants to have health problems or even die before age 1, Karotkin said.

Still, too few women receive prenatal care.

“We recognized we had a big problem in Norfolk and in the state of Virginia, as well as other communities in the country, that’s related to poverty and lack of education,” Karotkin said.

“It’s not that people are ignorant,” Karotkin said. “They’ve never been told about the importance of prenatal care. It became apparent to a lot of us that maybe there were some simple things that we could do to improve the care that these mothers were getting so that we would improve the outcome of the pregnancy.”

Some families may be unaware of free resources, including prenatal clinics, said LaVern Morris, a Resource Mothers regional coordinator.

Some teenagers and young women also may have problems such as not owning a car and living too far from a bus line, or having trouble paying rent, she said.

“So getting to the doctor’s office when they feel OK is not a priority,” she said.

That’s where the Resource Mothers come in.

They undergo intensive training so they can encourage women to get prenatal care and teach them about the importance of eating properly and avoiding drugs and alcohol. They also counsel their clients on family planning, obtaining medical insurance and accessing community services. And they must be able to provide transportation to medical appointments. Participants can go through the program only once.

The program has served more than 500 clients since it began in 1997, and the results are promising.

From 1998 to 1999, low-birth-weight infants born to Medicaid recipients in Norfolk stayed in the hospital for 32 days on average. For babies in the Resource Mothers program, the average stay was only 12 days, Karotkin said.

That means big savings in hospital costs--an average of $81,578 for a Medicaid baby versus $32,044 for a Resource Mothers baby. The program costs about $800 a client, so “you save a ton of money,” Karotkin said.

Fewer low-birth-weight babies were born to Resource Mothers participants. From 1998 to 1999, 16% of babies born to Medicaid recipients in Norfolk weighed less than five pounds, compared with 13% of babies in the program.

Other Resource Mothers programs exist in Virginia and around the country, Karotkin said. But many don’t provide transportation for clients, he said. Some programs serve only teenagers, while the Eastern Virginia Medical School program is for women up to 24.

Kimbrough was among the first Resource Mothers at EVMS. She learned about the program at a civic league meeting and immediately signed up.

“It was something I could relate to,” she said.

She recalled feeling humiliated when she asked her doctor questions during her two pregnancies and she didn’t understand the answers.

“It was kind of stressful,” Kimbrough said. “When you would talk to the men, they didn’t understand. It was like everything was always cool with them. I wished I had a female friend that I could talk to about my pregnancy, that I could talk to about when my baby was kicking.”

Today, Kimbrough is one of seven full-time Resource Mothers. They are paid about $8.50 an hour, get benefits and are reimbursed for expenses, such as mileage.

Kimbrough has 18 clients. She sees them about once a week or more, depending on each mother’s individual needs.

Some Resource Mothers have earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and gone into social work, Karotkin said.

The program began with a $445,000, three-year grant from the Virginia Health Care Foundation, which gives seed grants to communities in need of health services. The program now has some state funding but needs more money, perhaps from private insurers, to expand, Karotkin said.