University students are mentoring teenage mothers in a new program geared towards preventing pre-term delivery.

The program, called Mentoring Adolescent Mothers to Achieve, also known as MAMA, is offered through Carle Foundation Hospital.

Female college students call pregnant teens once a week and discuss issues associated with pregnancy, such as signs of pre-term labor and plans to care for the baby.

“Teen moms are more at risk for delivering early,” said Heather Sloane, a social worker at Carle, who started the program in November 2004.

Teen birth rates tend to be higher in the rural areas outside of Champaign County, where getting access to health care facilities can be more challenging, Sloane said.

“Pre-term delivery in adolescents is often preventable,” she said. “Those deliveries usually happen too early because the mother has not had adequate prenatal care. The program is designed to change that.”

Prenatal care includes risk assessment, treatment for medical conditions or risk reduction and education. It is normally recommended to begin prenatal care early in the pregnancy, but most teen moms don’t begin until much later, she said.

Since the start of the program, 34 mother-mentor pairs have formed. The relationships usually begin from the date of referral until six weeks after the birth or six weeks after the baby’s discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit, Sloane said. Referrals to the program have come from physician groups, schools and from the teens themselves.

Jessica Hannah of Gibson City, Ill., was one of the mothers who participated in the program. Hannah, now a senior in high school, was 17 when she found out she was pregnant.

“I was nervous about raising a child on my own, and that’s what we discussed a majority of the time,” Hannah said.

Hannah said they also discussed future college and career goals. She said she felt she could talk to her mentor about aspects of her life without feeling like she was being judged.

“The main benefit was probably it being a stress reliever – to know that you had someone to talk to, no matter what,” Hannah said.

Jessica Carlson, Hannah’s mentor in the program and senior in LAS, learned of the program through her sorority. Carlson said her immediate interest in the program stemmed from her family’s past.

“My parents were the first of their friends to have a child,” Carlson said. “It was difficult for them to find sources of understanding and support, and I know a program like this would have helped.”

Hannah said after graduating high school she plans to attend Heartland Community College in Bloomington, Ill., and eventually transfer to Illinois State University, where she plans to study social work.

A new amendment, recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, is a step toward the goal to help pregnant and parenting students complete their college education. The Hart amendment will encourage institutions to provide critical support services. Some of the services include assistance in locating and utilizing childcare, maternity coverage in student health care plans, more financial aid and flexible academic scheduling.

The Hart amendment is part of the College Access and Opportunity Act, and funding for the services is authorized by the amendment through Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.

The mentoring program is funded by Carle Foundation Hospital and the Carle Development Foundation. The Development Foundation raised more than $18,000 from their 2004 Employee Giving Campaign to pay for items including phone cards and educational books as well as administrative help for the program.