SPH Program to Train Pregnancy Counselors

University officials and representatives of the Boston Foundation Wednesday unveiled a pilot project to aid impoverished mothers in the Mission Hill area.

Using a $170,000 grant from the Foundation, Harvard School of Public Health (SPH) doctors will train four local women to serve as "comadres" or informal pregnancy counselors, for younger women in two Mission Hill housing projects.

"The hope is that some aspects of this could serve as national models," said John F. Ramsey, assistant director of the Foundation, adding that Harvard professors have donated "literally hundreds of hours" to the project.

Planning for the three-year program--known as Project Life--began when Harvard doctors learned that parts of Mission Hill had infant mortality rates as high as 50 deaths per 1000 live births.

It was striking. They're across the street from the fanciest medical institution in the world," said Dr. Milton Kotelchuk, who discovered the problem three years ago.

The national average infant mortality rate is 10.6 deaths per 1000, although the figure is slightly higher for ethnic minorities.

"The real source of the project," Kotelchuk said, was a group of community leaders within the housing developments who "knew they had a serious problem." Kotelchuck said Project Life would act through existing local groups to reach those in need, instead of creating an impersonal outside agency.

Foundation representatives "have been unequivocal in stating their intention to sustain the program for three years," said Jay Winston, director of the SPH's Center for Health Communication. Harvard will continue to donate to the program in kind, but does not plan direct financial support, he added.

Kotelchuck, Dr. Steven Gordmaker and other SPH doctors will administer the project. However, Ramsey said local leaders will help choose the four "comadres" to receive training and part-time jobs as pregnancy counselors.

"It's not somebody from an ivory tower setting picking people out of the blue," Ramsey said. Project Life is "oriented around local leaders and a sophisticated self-help model. It relies on acceptance of local leaders," he added. "It's a low-tech, not a high-tech intervention."

"These are women who have Ph.D.'s in life, in experience," Kotelchuck said.