By STAN DARDEN

Special to the Bulletin

When the phone rings on the crisis pregnancy hotline at Catholic Social Services (CSS), chances are the caller is a young woman who is pregnant, distressed and looking for guidance on what her next step should be.

In some cases, the caller is also in legal trouble and facing a jail sentence, said Noreen Horrigan, director of CSS's Pregnancy, Parenting and Adoption Program. In fact, there is now a special emphasis at CSS on working with such mothers.

"We try to work closely with troubled moms to help them develop a plan for their lives and for their babies," the director said. "We recognize the special needs a woman in this situation has."

Thirty to 40 calls a month come in on the crisis pregnancy hotline, Horrigan said. The callers may need anything from information or supplies for their baby to extensive services including adoption counseling.

The range of services CSS can provide includes counseling, help in decision-making, support in difficult situations by a caseworker or mentor, help in securing prenatal care or just someone to listen.

The goal of the program is to help pregnant women make good long-term decisions for themselves and their unborn children.

Horrigan is a licensed clinical social worker and therapist who became director of the Pregnancy, Parenting and Adoption Program in April 1997. In 1984 she had helped launch the CSS adoption program, then left in 1986 to have children of her own. She has been a caseworker, supervisor and director in both public and private agencies.

Her staff includes Terry Mitchell as the adoption intake coordinator, Valerie Barlow as the new coordinator of minority adoptions, Lois Miller who oversees the international adoption program and Wanda Muhammed as the volunteer coordinator and community liaison. Michelle Heelin is the pregnancy caseworker.

So far this year, the program has had 87 clients, of whom about 40 received extended services. Seven babies were placed with adoptive families.

Licensed as a child placement agency, the CSS adoption program initially placed primarily healthy white infants. But as the program grew, its racial and ethnic makeup became more diverse, including African-American, Hispanic and Asian families and children.

It also grew to include mothers who might not normally be served by an adoption agency, such as women who have been in prison, who have problems with alcohol or mental illness.

Adoption practices have evolved over the years into a highly specialized field that tries to encourage respect and trust among all parties to the adoption process. Each case is unique and presents its own set of problems, Horrigan said.

"Birth moms will call us and say, 'I want to make a plan, I want to do something positive for my child,'" she said. "They may want to give their child a better life than they are able to provide. We don't talk about giving up children for adoption. We talk about making a plan of adoption and entrusting the child to a family."

Once a plan has been drawn up, the birth mother enters into a negotiated relationship with the adoptive family leading to an arrangement that will be beneficial to all parties, giving the child the most emotional support possible.

"Is it pictures and letters every year? Is it phone calls? Is it a visit a year? What kind of relationship will help the birth mom make this plan and have it be satisfactory to her and the adopted parents?" said Horrigan. "Certainly not co-parenting because the adopted parents are the parents. The birth mom is counseled around that whole issue and doesn't want to be a co-parent."

"So we are working with birth parents in a respectful way and helping them have more power in the adoption process. We feel like they can leave this situation more intact emotionally and possibly won't repeat this crisis situation again because they feel they have some self-respect, some self-esteem."

Families who wish to adopt children are given instructions on how to create a portfolio portraying who they are and the strengths they can bring to the task of raising an adopted child. "We do this so that no child is ever placed in an unknown or inappropriate home," said Horrigan.

There is also a mentoring program to help families and birth mothers deal with the problems involved in placing an adopted child in a home.

"We have meetings in which we negotiate every conceivable issue that might arise between an adopted child, the adopting parents and the birth mom," said Horrigan. "We sit around a table and discuss such questions as what they will do if they meet by chance on the street."

Contrary to adoption practices of the past, the modern approach is to tell children they are adopted as soon as they are able to handle the news. The issue of the birth mother's identity and possible involvement in the child's life is dealt with during the negotiating sessions while the adoption plan is being finalized.

"Both sides negotiate and find out what they're comfortable with," the director said. "Some birth moms take the approach that they'll never call the family for fear of intruding on their lives, whereas some families are saying to the moms, 'Please call us when you want to talk.' It's really all about what's comfortable for them in their particular situation."

The CSS program needs volunteer parents who will provide short-term foster care for infants. Foster care is used for a newborn when there is a legal problem that must be resolved before the infant can be placed with the adoptive family.

Since about one-third of the callers to the hotline are African-American, there is a special need for African-American families who are able to volunteer as short-term foster parents, Horrigan said.

The phone number for the Pregnancy, Parenting and Adoption program is (404) 885-7443. The crisis pregnancy hotline number is (404) 325-9732. It is answered 14 hours a day from 8:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.