NOT FOUND: real care baby.jpgLife is all about choices. Many choices we make are important to our futures and lead us to make other choices – often having lasting effects.
Thanks to Cheri Mendoza and Foothill High School, there are several teenagers that will definitely be making more informed choices this summer and hopefully beyond.
Ms. Mendoza’s Child Development class was not the ordinary situation for these students, as they took on “Real Care Baby.” Real Care Baby is a teen pregnancy prevention program consisting of two parts. The first of which is classroom learning about babies and all the things that are involved with having 100% responsibility for a child. Secondly, the program lends hands-on experience as students are sent home with a “baby” for 48 or more hours.
The Real Care Baby program is state of the art with computerized infant simulators that come in all different ethnicities and both male and female genders. The “babies” are pre-programmed to spontaneously cry, need to be fed, rocked, etc.
It is as true to life as you can get in a simulated situation.
Prior to receiving their “babies”, the students were required to fill out a contract that their parents also had to sign, as they assumed financial responsibility and agreed to provide all necessary care for the “baby”.
They agreed to be totally responsible, including not driving when they were overly tired, as many of the babies are programmed to wake up multiple times during the night.
“I didn’t like having to wake up at 3 a.m. and then still have to go to school”, said 16 year-old Samantha Garrett.
“You don’t really know what it’s like until you really have to do it,” said 16 year-old, Candee McGowen.
“It prevents you from wanting to do what would give you a baby.” Before this project, Candee sometimes thought it might be cool to have a baby. Now she knows it’s not something she’s ready to do.
“I like the idea – the learning part of this program, but I didn’t like the ‘baby’ part,” claims Phillip Boatwright, 17. He said it changed the way he thinks about some aspects life and how it would be a basis for making different choices.
18 year old, Angela Pilliard thought it would have been more fun if it wasn’t for a grade. “It made me more stressed out with the whole thing, knowing it was for a grade. I still want to have kids, but I want to wait.” Students were allowed to name the baby and were given a birth certificate, a diaper bag and an infant carrier. Also, they were each outfitted with a tamper-proof bracelet, programmed specifically to their “baby,” that is required to stay on them at all times. This is how the program ensures that the student is fulfilling their part of the agreement to provide all of the care themselves.
Sometimes, the baby simply needs to have the bracelet come into contact with them. But that’s not always the right answer. Just like with real life, the students had to pay attention to the child and many were able to learn the different type of cries the baby had to gave them clues as to what was needed at that moment.
Once the babies were returned to the classroom, a computer printout was generated that showed right and wrong moves made by the student, where the baby was concerned. Ms.
Mendoza said, “The Real Care Baby program also teaches students about issues that go along with parenting, like creating awareness about shaken baby syndrome.
If a student gets frustrated and shakes the infant simulator, the computer will record that. The computer records proper care, neglect and abuse.” Each student was given a baby book where they recorded different information about the situations they found themselves in, such as how this project affected their social lives. Phillip said that he had to take the baby to track practice with him. He was able to leave the baby in the infant carrier, but had to run back to the baby several times during the practice when care was required.
Angela’s baby cried a lot during church, as she had to keep the baby with her and try to figure out what it needed at the moment.
Samantha asked her dad what to do on several occasions when everything she tried didn’t seem to be working. Just like real life!
Overall, the students thought it was a great program – stressful, but good. Unanimously, it has changed the way they look at life and relationships in general, and will help them think before they act when faced with making potentially lifechanging choices.
Candee suggested that the program should be offered not only to high school students, but adults as well – for longer periods of time – before they decide to have children.
Perhaps as these and other students share their experiences, they will afford a reality check for teens and adults alike to make more informed choices!