When she first approached her mentor in 2002, Marla Davis was
12 years old and five months along with her first child. She
had not told a soul she was pregnant.

"I was scared," Davis said. "I knew my grandmother would be
disappointed in me, and I knew she wouldn't expect that from
me."

Jacquelyn Seldon, the mentor and now the executive director of
the Eastern Shore Pregnancy Center, took Davis under her wing.
The two went to the local health department and Seldon helped
Davis tell her grandmother and guardian, Nancy Stimis.

"It was really a shocker," Stimis said. "I'd heard about girls
15 and 16 years old getting pregnant, but Marla was only 12.
She was just a little kid."

Abortion wasn't an option because Davis was too far along, so
she planned to give the baby up for adoption. Throughout her
pregnancy, Davis stayed in school and was ridiculed by other
students.

"Everybody was talking about me, and some of the teachers were
pregnant, which made me feel uncomfortable," she said.

The day Davis was scheduled to meet a couple interested in
adopting her daughter, she went into labor. After Davis gave
birth to Alissa, she decided to raise the child on her own,
which proved to be no easy task. Stimis quit her job to stay
with the baby during the day, so Davis could keep going to
school.

"I had a lot of support, but I'm not going to say it was easy,"
Davis said. "It was hard getting up in the middle of the night
with the baby, and going to school the next day."

Also, Davis had to rely on Stimis for financial support.

"We had our ups and downs," Stimis said. "I was ready to retire
and any plans I had for my golden years had gone out the
window."

It was important, however, that Davis stayed in school, Stimis
added.

At 17, Davis gave birth to her second daughter, Aaliyah Holden.

"The best thing I could do was love her, help her, take care of
her and do whatever I could do for her," Stimis said. "She
graduated from high school. She stood up and just did what she
had to do, and I'm really proud of her for that."

Now 21, Davis is a freshman at the University of Maryland
Eastern Shore, majoring in exercise science. She holds a 3.5
GPA.

Davis said her grandmother has been her rock, and she's certain
she could have never raised two children and finished school
without Stimis' support.

"If she wasn't there, I don't know what I would have done,"
Davis said.

___

Pregnancy Center

It was around the time Davis had her first child that Seldon
became executive director at ESPC, a nonprofit, faith-based
organization that provides free services to women of all ages
facing an unplanned pregnancy.

Seldon was also a teen mom, having her first child when she was
17.

"I remember the turmoil and the shame; but I was blessed
because I had a family who really supported me and encouraged
me to continue my education," Seldon said. "With everything
I've been blessed with, and everything I've been able to
accomplish, I really want to be able to give that to the young
women in my community and show them they can do this."

ESPC assists roughly 400 women each year. In 2011, 27 percent
of those women were between the ages of 15 and 19.

Among ESPC's free services include pregnancy tests, mentoring,
pregnancy and parenting classes and adoption education. The
center also offers the Bundles of Love incentive program, which
allows pregnant women to earn "Mommy Bucks" they can use to get
supplies like diapers, bottles, baby clothes and formula. Mommy
Bucks can be earned by keeping prenatal appointments, enrolling
in GED programs and attending parenting courses, among other
things.

Assistance for teen parents is also available through programs
offered by the Wicomico County Health Department. The Babies
Born Healthy program provides pregnant women of all ages with
free pregnancy tests, multivitamins and portable cribs with
information on how to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

___

By the numbers

According to Chavonda Carr, community health educator with
WCHD, a review of the 2009 Maryland Vital Statistics -- the
most recent available -- shows a declining trend in the teen
birth rate in Wicomico County. The birth rate for girls ages
15-19 declined from 52.5 per 1,000 adolescents in 2000 to 44.7
in 2009. However, despite this decrease, the county birth rate
is still higher than the state birth rate -- 31.2 -- and the
county is the fourth highest out of 24 Maryland jurisdictions.

___

Prevention

According to Tracy Sahler, a spokeswoman for Wicomico County
Public Schools, teen pregnancy is taught within the Family Life
and Human Sexuality unit of the health curriculum in grades
eight and 10.

Students in grade eight learn about fetal development and teen
pregnancy. Instructors assess the impact of unplanned pregnancy
on a teenager's life and outline the reasons why women get
pregnant -- by accident, by not using contraception, to keep a
partner and by not practicing abstinence.

Students in grade 10 receive more in-depth information,
including a review of the process of human reproduction, how to
distinguish between healthy and unhealthy relationships and how
to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

Sahler would not provide the number of pregnant teens now
enrolled in Wicomico County schools and said, "We wouldn't
release that kind of information if we had it."

Carr teaches some courses at local schools, sometimes focusing
on abstinence and sometimes on forms of contraception.

"It's important for (the kids) to know this stuff because they
are growing up and being exposed to things earlier," she said.
"However the parents are the primary sexuality educators, and
I'm just a supplement."

Carr added parents who need advice on how talk to their
children about sex should contact the health department.

Davis said she definitely doesn't regret having her daughters,
but she urges teenage girls to wait.

"It's so much harder when you have children," she said. "Teens
should wait to have sex, because it's not worth it. If they are
having sex, they should use protection because a child is a big
responsibility."

For teens who do get pregnant and decide to raise the child,
Davis said they should stay in school.

"Don't give up because it's not the end, it's just the
beginning," she said. "It's not ideal, but if it happens, just
keep going."

Continued here:
Groups offer assistance to teenage mothers