Under the chairmanship of past president Mary Gleason, the Rotary Club of St. Thomas has adopted, funded and sponsored the Baby Think It Over program in the Virgin Islands since 1996. Junior and high school students are learning what it is like to be a parent in the most real way possible. They are provided with real life virtual babies about the size of a three month old. These state of the art babies have a computerized chip that records exactly what kind of care they have received and the student has to figure out what the baby needs. When the need is met, the baby stops crying. The program is designed to show teenagers how difficult it can be to raise a child, how much responsibility is placed on the parent and allows them to experience the demands of childcare. They are monitored and must have their parents’ permission to be in the program. The program was first introduced to Bertha C. Boschulte and then to Charlotte Amalie High School, Eudora Kean High School and Adelita Cancryn.
After spending a couple of days and nights with the Baby Think It Over infant simulator, many teens come to realize that they are not yet ready to take on the pressures and responsibilities of parenting. More than one million teenage girls become pregnant each year in the U.S. – 11 percent of all women aged 15-19 — with over 40 percent of all females under 20 having at least one pregnancy. Over three fourths of teen pregnancies are unplanned, accounting for about one fourth of all accidental pregnancies each year. About 55 percent of teen pregnancies end in birth, 31 percent in abortion, and 14 percent in miscarriages. Of those teenage women who choose to become mothers, one out of four will have a second child within two years of their first.
Each year in the United States, 20 percent of the teenage girls who are sexually active become pregnant. The United States leads the developed nations in teen pregnancy, with twice the teen pregnancies of Canada and nine times the number of Japan. The makers of Baby Think It Over want to help reverse those trends. The program is the centerpiece of many pregnancy prevention programs in high schools, middle schools, churches, and community centers. More than 40,000 dolls have now found homes across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and now, the Virgin Islands.
Because of its success, The Rotary Club of St. Thomas has continued its sponsorship of this program and has purchased more babies to deliver to the schools. This program has been recognized as one of the reasons that teen pregnancies have been reduced in the Virgin Islands. It is the goal of the Rotary Club of St. Thomas to continue to make a difference in the community and to continue its goal to reduce teenage pregnancies with this wonderful program. The Rotary Club of St. Thomas is in the process of delivering 20 new babies to each of the four schools in the coming week.
For more information on the program, to assist in sponsorship or to become involved in the program, contact Rotarian Mary Gleason at 776-1775.
