Makin' Babies

Fire near Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon. Photo by JoAnn Sturman

Scott Sturman

fliesinyoureyes.com

“We just had to try for a boy. Having two girls didn't seem right.”

This sounds like a story one would hear from a middle age couple who decide to give it one last try. But these are the words from a conversation between a labor and delivery nurse and her 18 year old patient who was having a cesarean section for her third child. Neither she nor her boyfriend were high school graduates or employed. Eighteen years old, unmarried, no education, no job, and three kids under four years old – how do they make ends meet? It's simple. We pay for it, and there are no strings attached.

Times are tough and middle class birthrates are down as couples are delaying having children until economic conditions improve - but not in California's Central Valley. The labor and delivery area where I work is brimming with pregnant women, many who are teenagers, most who are unmarried, and almost all who are receiving welfare. The region's unemployment rate is over 15%, but a growing segment of the poor and uneducated have found a way to make a living having babies at public expense. This situation would not be as worrisome if good parenting skills and well adjusted, successful children were society's reward for financial aid. On the contrary these children are more apt to perform poorly in school, use drugs, experience troubles with the law, and repeat the mistakes of their parents. Under the current system government support is certain, but there is no quid pro quo on the part of the recipients to insure they are raising their children well.

What are the financial enticements for having children? The Fresno County Department of Social Services was helpful in providing information regarding the benefits available. Do welfare mothers receive more money for each additional child? Yes, they receive $326/month for the first child, and this stipend is increased for each child. By the 10^th child the payment is $1398/month. The cash benefit comprises only a small portion of the entire financial package. Free medical care, food stamps, rental subsides, and child care are offered. This may not be the life many of us choose to lead, but with cash and generous benefit packages it has become a sustainable lifestyle.

What are the responsibilities of the welfare recipients? Not many:

• no requirement to use birth control or stay in school

• no demonstration of adequate parenting skills

• no manner to insure the child is adequately supervised or receiving a meaningful educational experience

• no guarantee that the money will be spent on the child

It is a laissez fare free-for-all where much is left to hope. Many of these adolescents and women behave in the same manner as their mothers and grandmothers. Without structure, stability, or positive roll models, their course is set from childhood. It is tragic when government programs reinforce the cycle by rewarding destructive behavior.

In our hospital a pregnant unwed teenager who smokes cigarettes will receive counseling from social services to stop smoking but not for having her third baby by three different fathers. In the interest of the baby's welfare this would be the opportune time to intervene, but in the world of tax financed obstetrics this subject is taboo.

A number of changes are necessary that provide support for children but discourage welfare motherhood as a career option:

• All support of welfare mothers should be non cash

• Dormitory housing available but no individual housing

• Food stamps good for purchase of only nutritious foods (Been There? Read That? “Feeding Obesity” 11/6/09 )

• Require identification of the child's father, so at some point his wages can be garnished or his government benefits used to support the child.

• Offer teenagers who participate is risky sexual behavior an enticement to prevent pregnancy while in junior high and high school. The use of reversible long term birth control methods coupled with a modest monthly financial reward would encourage adolescents to stay in school and delay their child rearing days for later in life. A better educated and more mature young woman has a better chance avoid early pregnancy and break the vicious cycle which ensures poverty and hopelessness.

Unless one is associated with the medical or social service field, there is little awareness of the scope of this problem. The best chance for any child to succeed is to have two committed parents, and one of them is not the welfare department with cash in hand and no questions asked.