By Rita McInerney

It begins with survival English and goes all the way through to the post-delivery home visit.

It is the prenatal class for pregnant Hispanic women held for 25 weeks at Our Lady of the Americas Mission on New Peachtree Road in Doraville, and at Casa San Jose near the Hispanic Catholic Center in Grant Park. Both classes are sponsored by Hispanic Services, a branch of St. Joseph’s Mercy Care at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Atlanta.

Anywhere from 16 to 26 women, some with toddlers, attend the Wednesday morning classes at the Doraville mission. Now in its third year, the project is intended to help non-English speaking Hispanic women “defend themselves” in the maze of the systems at Grady Hospital clinic and Fulton and Dekalb county health clinics.

Sister Barbara Harrington, GNSH, director of Hispanic Services, says, “The group we’re trying to help are those we feel are in the most need: those having their first child, poor, and without documentation,” teenagers and women with high risk pregnancies.

It is gratifying to her that 82 percent of the women served get care in the first trimester of their pregnancy.

The Grey Nun sees the project as an example of the “special focus on women and children” by the Sisters of Mercy who operate St. Joseph’s Hospital. She says that in 1992, 196 women were enrolled with 92 giving birth so far. Another 583 women were helped incidentally, “usually people we meet at Grady or the clinics who need help or orientation. We’re helping them because we’re there.”

The prenatal project is funded through grants from St. Joseph’s Mercy Care Services, the North Georgia Chapter of the March of Dimes, and the Healthy Tomorrows Partnership for Children of the federal government and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The mission of the March of Dimes is to bring birth weight up and reduce infant mortality. Its guidelines say weight less than five pounds, eight ounces, is “not acceptable,” Sister Harrington says.

“Our average weight of seven pounds, seven ounces was actually achieved in 1992,” she adds.

Rosa Solorzano, a doctor from Colombia, is project supervisor. In the process of becoming a licensed physician in the U.S., she admits there is “still a long way to go.” Gloria Baroni, a Hispanic Services outreach worker, helps the expectant mothers access the system at Grady and in the two counties. Sister Sara Roberts, OP, teaches them basic English.

The English as a Second Language, (ESL) instruction Sister Roberts gives concentrates on vital statistics: name, address, due date, parts of the body, and illnesses. She teaches the women how to fill out registration forms, make appointments, and call 911.

The women are eager to learn, the Sinsinawa Dominican finds. “Coming to class every week gives them ability and confidence.”

Mrs. Baroni takes the women to Grady for their first visit, to orient them and give them support. After one or two prenatal visits to Grady they will go to the county clinics for regular checkups. Because they lack health insurance, their delivery and brief hospital stay will be billed to Medicaid by Grady.

The women sit around a long table in Mrs. Solorzano’s crowded Doraville classroom. They are young. Some seem bewildered, others at ease. One wall holds posters showing a pre-born baby in several stages of growth within the womb.

In future classes, she will prepare them for the moment of delivery, making sure they understand “how to breathe and how to push” during labor.

“We feel very satisfied, especially when people at Grady say they can tell the women who came to class…They are more calm, understand what’s going on and cooperate better,” she says.

The program includes two home visits. One is to make sure the mother-to-be understands the importance of prenatal care and good nutrition, and to try and determine if there is a home problem that could affect the pregnancy.

The second visit is made one week after birth to check the newborn’s health and if the baby is being breast-fed. Mothers are informed of care available at county clinics.

“We want to be supportive,” Mrs. Solorzano says. She explains that the women don’t have extended families here, no mothers or sisters to help them during the nine months and after. Although the focus is prenatal care, “They don’t want to leave the class,” Mrs. Solorzano says. Trust has been established with the instructors and with other young mothers.

For this reason, Cecelia Galvis, education coordinator at Hispanic Services, is preparing a follow-up parenting class which hopefully will include fathers as well as mothers.

Mrs. Solorzano is well aware that the growing Hispanic population appreciates the valuable service the project offers and she sees it as making a difference as far as educating mothers in good health practices for themselves and their babies. Women are referred to the project by Grady or county health departments or they see notices in Spanish newspapers or hear about it from other new mothers.