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Saturday, 15 March 2008 |
 Shoshana Brackett/SDN Left, Dylan Howard, left, “feeds” his RealCare Baby during a learning session in his seventh-grade health class. Above, Jaleen Jenkins, left, helps Jahri Doss, right, with the proper way to care for the RealCare Babies. The students each took a baby home later in the day to experience the realities of parenting an infant for about a 12-hour stretch. Top, Lakeria Robinson changes a diaper for the baby she named Peaches. The students moved to their classroom floor during a recent tutorial in order to more easily care for the babies and handle things like changing diapers. By SHOSHANA BRACKETT
Starkville Daily News
Armstrong Middle School students have experienced some of the realities of parenting thanks to a program of Project Abstinence ‘Til Marriage.
After receiving a brief tutorial, seventh-grade students, with their parents’ permission, take home a RealCare Baby for the night to learn the true realities of caring for an infant.
Project ATM’s various programs aim to reduce sexual activity among youth and teach children to become better individuals.
Martha Lawrence, Project ATM’s RealCare Baby coordinator, said the hope is that the babies will make students stop and think twice about having sex at this time in their lives.
“We want you all to know what if feels like to be a parent,” she said to a group of seventh graders recently.
“Once you take it home, you’ll see this is something you don’t want to do,” Lawrence said.
“If they were to have a baby right now or to become a father it would be a big problem with homework, activities ... ,” she said.
The babies are designed to simulate a real baby through size and weight (each weighs about 7 pounds), as well as needs such as feeding, burping, cuddling, diaper changing and careful handling.
The babies have wobbly heads just like infants, and mishandling of the baby including a lack of proper head support registers on the internal computer chip for Lawrence to review after the babies are returned.
Students are graded on how well they care for the baby based on the computer data.
“I’ve had a lot of students score a 100,” Lawrence said.
“Guys have scored higher than my females, so I’m very impressed with that,” she said.
Seventh-grade student Corvontae Smith took a baby home last semester and made a 100.
Smith said he expected it would be hard to care for the baby and did discover that taking care of the baby every time it cried was a little difficult.
But, Smith said he has some experience caring for a baby cousin, so he already knew what babies need.
Before taking a baby home, students watch a video about the RealCare Babies and participate in a tutorial about how to meet the baby’s needs.
Most students in a recent class quickly began cuddling and cradling the babies as they watched the video.
A few took a little time learning how to properly hold the babies or change their diapers.
The babies are programmed to coo, fuss, cry, cough, burp and emit breathing sounds, all of which the students must pay attention to.
Lawrence programs each baby on a different schedule and students must respond to the baby’s cries or whimpers as quickly as possible and determine what need the baby has.
Students wear an identification bracelet that registers with each student’s baby to ensure that the students cares for its baby and the responsibility is not taken over by someone else.
For students who take home a baby, their parenting time starts at 4 p.m. and ends the next morning at 5 a.m. and includes nighttime awakenings.
“I’ve had a lot (of students) come back from taking a baby home and say, ‘I don’t want to have a baby,’” Lawrence said. “It’s a reality check for them.”
Lawrence said parents of children outside the health classes have also expressed interest in having their children participate in the program.
“It has been a good experience for a lot of kids,” she said.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 March 2008 )
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