ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, August 26, 1996 TAG: 9608260081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NORFOLK
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
Mothers are easy to spot here on the maternity ward of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.
They're the ones in the hospital gowns soothing newborn infants.
The fathers, however, are a little harder to identify. The ones who do wander by look a little starry-eyed and very proud, a condition that people like Paula Selman depend upon.
Selman is one of several people at the hospital in charge of asking the parents of children born out of wedlock to sign papers identifying the biological father. Signing on this particular dotted line doesn't just get the father's name on a birth certificate - it assigns him legal and financial responsibilities.
In other words, the document gives the mother, and the state, evidence to force the father to pay child support if he should ever balk at supporting his child.
Selman travels the hallways of Sentara at the request of the state's Division of Child Support Enforcement, which began the Paternity Establishment Project in September 1990.
``Congratulations on your new baby,'' Selman said Tuesday to Shannona Logan, mother to hours-old Jayvon Jenkins. ``I'm here to do your birth certificate and see if the father of the baby wants to sign paternity papers.''
``Let me ask you something,'' said Logan. ``I want the baby to have his father's last name. Is that legal?''
Selman tells her she can give the baby whatever name she wants, but unless the father signs paternity papers, the name doesn't mean the father is legally responsible for Jayvon.
Logan assures her the father will sign the papers. ``We've already talked about it,'' she said.
The goal of the Paternity Establishment Project is to catch men while they're still in that new-father glow, and encourage them to acknowledge paternity. A simple scratch of a pen at the beginning of a child's life can save a costly court battle later if the father shirks obligations such as paying child support.
Sentara Norfolk General was the first hospital in the state to try the program, and Virginia the second state in the country. By Social Services accounting, the project has been a stunning success. The number of paternities established statewide in the program has jumped from 451 the first full year in 1991 to 8,227 in 1995. States across the country have since copied the program. And it's now state and federal law for hospitals to have someone on hand to offer ``declaration of paternity'' papers to unwed parents.
The interest in the paternity-establishment program is partly because of welfare reform and the efforts by government to make parents more financially responsible for their children.
About one in three children born in the U.S. and in Virginia have unmarried parents. The chances that these children will grow up in poverty - and perhaps on welfare - are greater than those for children with married parents. Children are better off if fathers contribute financially. But before that can happen, paternity has to be legally established.
If that's completed in the hospital, it's free to parents. Each paternity established in the hospital costs the state about $20, a bargain when you consider the state spends an average of $240 on a paternity case that has to go through the court system.
Aside from the savings, the hospital-based paternity program has another advantage. ``Several studies have shown that the probability of establishing paternity is greatly increased if it's established as close after birth as possible,'' said Carol A. Vanderspiegel, regional administrator for the state's Division of Child Support Enforcement.
In some cases, as in the case of little Jayvon Jenkins, the question of paternity is easy to answer.
His father, Willie Jenkins, had no qualms about signing the paternity papers. ``It's better than having to go through the court system,'' Willie Jenkins said, as he cradled his newborn son. ``It's quick, it's easy and you can get it done with.''
The 32-year-old Norfolk resident said he's not worried about child support - he and Jayvon's mother live together - and he's more than willing to support his son. ``I am going to stay by my child as long as I live,'' he said.
Another mother on the maternity ward Tuesday, Tammy Robinson, said she also appreciates the program, because it took about four years for her to start getting child-support payments for her first two children.
``This saves you the legal hassle,'' Robinson said. ``With my second child, it took them a while to find the father, even though I gave them all the information as far as his Social Security number and everything.''
According to Mary Rich, patient representative at the hospital, about half the births at Sentara Norfolk General are to unwed parents. Those new mothers and, when possible, fathers are given packets of information about paternity that outline the legal and financial responsibilities of being a parent.
A hospital notary then follows up and asks the parents whether they understand what paternity means. About 25 percent of those parents receiving the packets agree to sign the paternity papers.
``Have you read all the information about what paternity is?'' asked Amy Howe, a team coordinator for administrative associates at the hospital. ``Do you understand that once you sign this it's a legal document?''
Logan and Jenkins nodded their heads and passed Jayvon from one parent to the other as they signed the papers.
Jayvon's parents got his paternity established before he was even a day old, but the process isn't always so smooth. Mothers are sometimes concerned that signing paternity papers will interfere with their welfare benefits. Or they don't want anything to do with the father.
Fathers sometimes don't want to be responsible for child support, or are worried about paying hospital bills. Selman has had cases where she's had all the paperwork typed up and ready for a final signature when the father has gotten cold feet and decided not to sign.
In one case, the father refused to sign at the last minute. The mother removed her engagement ring, gave it back to the father and told him she would send someone to pick up her things at their home.
``Then she changed the baby's name, first, middle and last,'' Selman said, ``right while I was standing there.''
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