
DATE: Tuesday, March 11, 1997               TAG: 9703110277

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Our Children's Health 

SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   84 lines

THE GOAL: GIVING THE REGION'S BABIES A BETTER CHANCE A NORFOLK-BASED GROUP WILL TACKLE LOW BIRTHWEIGHT BABIES, LACK OF PRENATAL CARE AND OTHER PREGNANCY-RELATED ISSUES IN HAMPTON ROADS.

If you want to improve the health of a region's children, you start with their mothers. More specifically, you start before their mothers get pregnant.

That's just what a regional grass-roots organization has decided to try.

The Consortium for Infant and Child Health, a Norfolk-based organization that has shown success in improving immunization rates in the city, has decided to spend at least the next three years tackling pregnancy-related issues in Hampton Roads.

These include teen-age pregnancy, low birthweight babies, lack of prenatal care and breastfeeding, and HIV and AIDS in children.

``These problems are a sign of our American society,'' said consortium chair Susan Rooney. ``It's a sign of where our priorities lie, and it's not with pregnancy and children.''

The five areas were among 10 identified by the consortium's task force last month as children's health issues in which the region fares significantly worse than the state or country.

For instance:

Regionally, 22 percent of babies are born to mothers who didn't receive any early prenatal care. That compares to a statewide rate of 17 percent. Some local cities, such as Norfolk and Portsmouth, have rates approaching 30 percent.

Nearly 14 percent of the region's births are to teen-age mothers, compared to 11 percent throughout the state. On the Eastern Shore, that rate jumps to 22 percent.

Hampton Roads has the state's highest rate of HIV and AIDS infection in children.

The coalition hasn't decided yet how to address the issues, Rooney said, although a key focus will be access to prenatal health care. More specific details will come during meetings over the next few weeks.

But the coalition will probably draw upon lessons learned during the four years it has spent improving immunization rates in Norfolk's 2-year-olds. These include the need for a multifaceted approach involving a wide range of people, said coalition coordinator Pat Louis.

A statewide children's advocacy group, based in Richmond, praised the coalition's choice of issues.

``Every one of those indicators (except breastfeeding) are something we track and have concerns about statewide,'' said Susan Gholston, who works with the Action Alliance for Virginia's Children and Youth. The Richmond-based organization publishes an annual data book of children's issues, including children's health statistics.

The issues are all intertwined, Gholston said. For instance, teen-age mothers often don't get early prenatal care, and are at a higher risk of delivering low birthweight babies. Those babies go on to have vision and hearing problems, developmental delays and learning disabilities, straining social agencies and local schools.

``It really does seem to be an indicator of future problems of the health and well-being of that child,'' she said.

Dr. Arthur T. Evans, director of the division of maternal/fetal medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, said the problems can't be solved without cooperation between cities.

Evans deals with these issues every day, since his practice cares for many of the region's high-risk pregnancies and runs clinics for teen-age mothers and pregnant women infected with HIV.

``Hampton Roads is an area that has traditionally relied more on each community's own resources. But these problems are bigger than that. This requires broad-based popular solutions because the population is transient. They move not only from one doctor to another, but from one region to another.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

[photo of newborn baby being examined]

Graphic by Ken Wright/The Virginian-Pilot

Birthweight

Percentage of babies born weighing less than 5.5 pounds [city by

city]. For complete copy, see microfilm

Prenatal Care

Percentage of women who don't get prenatal care in first

trimester[city by city].

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: CHILDREN HEALTHCARE