The struggle of being a teen mom is something Jeannette E. South-Paul, a maternity care provider at the UPMC Matilda Theiss Health Center in the Hill District, has worried about for her young patients.
She knew that women who become pregnant in their teens are more likely to give birth to a child with low birth weight and to suffer from depression. They are less likely to graduate from high school and more likely to become pregnant again before they reach adulthood.
"Life is very difficult for them, and the more I cared for them, the more I realized they had unique needs," Dr. South-Paul said.
They were needs that couldn't be provided just by writing a prescription. The young women she cared for could benefit from the advice and experience of older women, she decided.
So four years ago, Dr. South-Paul, who is chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, started what she called the Maikuru Program, a mentoring project for teen moms. She adopted its name -- meaning great aunt, big mama or wise woman of the village -- from the Shona language in southern Africa.
The primary goals of the program, funded by the Heinz Endowments and the Grable Foundation, are to prevent teen moms from having another pregnancy before reaching adulthood and to encourage them to finish high school and obtain a job.
About 50 maikurus and teen moms have participated in the program during its first four years, attending regular meetings to discuss topics such as parenting, but also discussions about how to use contraception, how to enter into healthy relationships and how to deal with dysfunctional ones.
"It can't just be about better care for her baby," Dr. South-Paul said. "It's got to be about how to better care for herself."
The teen moms are often referred to the program by other agencies in Allegheny County, and the maikurus are volunteers from a wide spectrum of backgrounds, ranging from finance to nursing.
Janet Peterson, 58, a freelance architectural designer who lives in Highland Park, heard about the project through a friend. She'd enjoyed being a mother to her two adult sons. She had her first child when she was married and 34 years old, but she could imagine the challenges of being a teen mom.
For two years, Ms. Peterson has been the maikuru to Mareyai Freeman, 19, of Point Breeze. Ms. Freeman, who was 15 and a freshman in high school when she got pregnant, now has a 3-year-old daughter named Mareyana Kearney.
With support from her family as well as her daughter's father and his mom, Ms. Freeman has been able to graduate from high school and hold a job at McDonald's. In April, Ms. Freeman plans to begin taking classes to become a medical assistant.
"It's not that hard to juggle if you have somebody to help you," she said.
When she meets with Ms. Peterson, they talk about issues such as how she can get her daughter to eat healthy food and the importance of education. Ms. Peterson attended Ms. Freeman's high school graduation and has taken her on college visits.
Being a maikuru has been a learning experience for Ms. Peterson, a freelance architectural designer.
"It's a real struggle for a young woman," Ms. Peterson said. "I think that you really need a cheering section."
Although teen birth rates in Allegheny County declined by 15.6 percent in the 10-year period ending in 2009 -- a low since record-keeping began in 1971 -- teen moms remain a vulnerable population, and the Maikuru Program is continuing to search for both teen moms and maikurus to participate in the mentoring program, Dr. South-Paul said.
"Downward trends are always terrific, but it doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist anymore," she said.
First Published: April 2, 2012, 6:00 p.m.
