Free Workshop Offered for Pregnant Teens

“Good Beginnings,” an informational workshop for pregnant teen-agers, their parents, friends and boyfriends or husbands, will be offered from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Orange Unified School District Teen Mother Program, 250 S. Yorba St., in Orange. Sponsors of the free workshop are the March of Dimes, the Coalition Concerned with Adolescent Pregnancy and more than 60 other organizations, agencies and individuals.

Each year, more than 11,000 girls in Orange County become pregnant by mistake. Of the 3,055 of them who give birth, the vast majority do not attend teen-age motherhood programs or finish high school. The workshop is designed to help such girls and their families by putting them in touch with needed services, stressing the importance of career development for the mother and positive child-rearing skills. The program aims to motivate pregnant girls to seek early prenatal care and to discourage early pregnancy among young women.

The emotional aspects of pregnancy, prenatal care concerns, paternity issues, parenthood and other relationships will be addressed by speakers, who will include Orange County Supervisor Bruce Nestande, Bruce Patterson of the district attorney’s office, Jim Mead, founder of For Kids Sake, Dr. Anna Schober, specialist in alochol and drug abuse during pregnancy; and nurse-midwife Pat Russell.

Today is the deadline for workshop lunch reservations. For further information, call the March of Dimes, 631-8700, or the Coalition Concerned with Adolescent Pregnancy, 972-4859.

ORANGE

COUNTY