Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA - Gov. Sarah Palin's announcement last week that her 17-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant shined a national spotlight on teen pregnancy. Images of Bristol and Levi Johnston, the baby's 18-year-old father, filled more than 37 million television screens as Palin accepted her vice-presidential nomination at last week's Republican National Convention.

Todd and Sarah Palin have pledged steadfast support for their daughter and Johnston.

But there are plenty of pregnant teens in Palin's hometown of Wasilla and throughout the Matanuska-Susitna Borough who aren't getting that kind of attention - or family support, according to local service providers for pregnant teens.

State statistics show that Mat-Su teens in 2006 - the latest year for which such data is available - gave birth at a rate of almost 31 for every 1,000 girls between 15 and 19. Statewide, the rate was almost 41 births per 1,000 teenage girls.

Many of these girls don't have much money. Some get little help from their families. All are facing an experience that's stressful for any woman.

But they have the extra concerns of a still-developing body, higher risk for low-weight babies, and the difficulty of balancing work, school and the end of youthful freedom.

"Most teens like our young Bristol don't have the sort of supportive environment that I think she's going to experience," said Stephanie Birch, maternal/child health director for the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.

Providers see in pregnant teens a range of risky behaviors: girls couch-surfing from house to house, dieting to delay the onset of a baby bump, and still smoking, drinking or doing drugs.

So what kind of help is out there for these pregnant teens in the Mat-Su?

DIFFERENT NEEDS

Teenage girls accounted for nearly half, or about 400, of the reproductive health clients in the last year at the state-funded Mat-Su Public Health Center, along the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

Just nine of the roughly 1,000 reproductive health patients at the center were younger than 15, said Jane Conard, the center's nurse manager. But 200 fell between the ages of 15 and 17, and another 200 between 18 and 19.

Educating teens is different from educating older mothers, Conard said. Really solid nutritional advice and mentoring before the baby is born are vital.

The center encourages all young mothers to find a doctor of their own.

They also provide information about health care and food assistance programs.

"Some people think Coke is the main beverage. Their experiential knowledge is zip. They surf Web sites and they get misinformation," she said. "Sometimes their own parenting was flawed and frayed and unusual."

The center offers contraception and preconception counseling. They will talk about abortion with clients, but do not make abortion referrals, Conard said.

Health center staff always encourage teens to bring their parents with them, Conard said.

They also try to make sure that teen mothers start using contraception to delay a second pregnancy, she said.

"When teen moms become teen moms it's not unusual for them to get pregnant the next year," she said.

SUPPORT ESSENTIAL

The government isn't the only source of help. Local churches and doctors' offices also counsel pregnant teens, as do midwives and medical clinics.

HeartReach Pregnancy Center, located in a comfortable former home just off Bogard Road near Wasilla, offers free services for mostly lower-income clients. The nonprofit center is run with a $180,000 budget built solely from individual and business donors, said Kristi Pine, executive director.

Pine, who became a mother at 15, said the center tries to encourage teens not to get pregnant by recommending abstinence classes.

While most of HeartReach's clients fall in the 19-25 age range, Pine said the center does see some teens. Every month, 50 to 60 clients take parenting classes, she said.

The teens get similar services as the older moms: pregnancy counseling, followed by parenting and finance classes.

Mothers are assigned a volunteer mentor.

They have access to a room of baby, toddler and maternity clothing. Emergency packages of diapers and wipes are free to all.

The center presents information about abortion, but encourages mothers "to make a choice for life," Pine said. Most clients keep their babies, rather than putting them up for adoption, she said.

Her teenage clients need the extra help from the mentors and classes provided at HeartReach, Pine said.

"Your thought processes aren't fully connected yet," she said. "If you don't have that support network, not to say you will make bad choices, it just helps to have others around you."

HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS

The Valley's teen birth rate is below national and state averages.

But the Mat-Su is part of a statewide trend that troubles state officials.

Alaska's rate of 18- and 19-year-old unwed teenage mothers remains higher than the national rate - 77.5 per 1,000 teens here compared to 73 per 1,000 teens nationally.

State health officials are trying to educate teenage girls about healthy relationships through television and radio commercials, said Birch, the state's section chief for women's, children's and family health.

"Encouraging delayed sexual activity and prevention of teen pregnancy, we really had to get at the core issue, which is really around relationships and friends," she said. "Why you should be treated with respect. What a positive relationship with someone of the opposite sex looks like."

A 2,000-person national study last year by New Jersey-based Mathematica Policy Research Inc. on abstinence-only sex education showed that students were just as likely to have sex with or without the classes, she said.

State programs focusing on preventing teen pregnancy include talking about abstinence as well as education about contraceptives.

Find Zaz Hollander online at adn.com/contact/zhollander or call 352-6711.

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