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Sick babies offer lesson in value of prevention County officials take eye-opening tour By Dani Dodge County officials got a look last week at what happens when pregnant women and teens don't get the kind of prevention and education assistance community health nurses provide. At least one commissioner who took of tour at Rogue Valley Medical Center got the message loud and clear. "I did see things today that make me realize the need to maintain services where they are now," Commissioner Jack Walker said Friday. "I certainly learned more about the needs." Community health nurses are county employees who go to the homes of pregnant women and teens. They take care of some of the mothers' prenatal needs and put them in touch with parenting classes, drug and alcohol counseling and the Oregon Health Plan. It's all aimed at helping moms have and raise healthy children. During the tour at RVMC, County officials saw graphic evidence of the effects of babies born to drug-addicted mothers: premature infants on respirators in the neonatal ward; a child suffering from cerebral palsy and an inability to control aggressive impulses in the children's ward. They saw a blind and brain-damaged child in the children's ward, injured when her drug-addicted father shook her violently. "This is usually invisible -- it's not what politicians normally see," said Community Health Nurse Robin Turgesen. "But every time there's a cut in funding (for community health nurses) there is a loss of prevention of these problems." Jackson County faces an anticipated overall shortfall in next year's budget of $1.2 to $1.8 million. County administrator Sue Slack has said all departments in the county will be tightening their belts. The Maternal Child Health program lost two community health nurses this year, when a $150,000 grant ran out. Peg Bowden, the program's director, is writing grant proposals to make up the lost money. But nurses and hospital administrators thought it would be a good idea to show county officials how important the program is. And show how much more expensive it is to have one baby born drug-addicted than to keep a community health nurse for a year. It's $2,700 a day for a child to stay in the hospital's neonatal unit. That doesn't include the doctor's costs, equipment costs or other expenses. Oftentimes, the Oregon Health Plan is picking up that bill. Many of the babies stay for months after being born to drug-addicted mothers. Community health nurses try to avert those disasters by educating women before or during the early months of pregnancy. Slack and Walker went on the tour, although all the county commissioners were invited. The effects of poverty and poor education aren't usually seen by the casual observer. But Barb Roberts, who's in charge of children's services at RVMC, said she was shocked when she came to the Rogue Valley from Southern California. "`I thought what I see here was only an inner-city problem," she said. She found that children were having babies and many were using drug, alcohol and tobacco throughout their pregnancies. Babies born to drug-addicted mothers have more behavior and health problems, which can be difficult for young mothers to handle. They also cost society more because of ongoing medical expenses and -- often -- jail expenses. In the neonatal nursery, the group peeked in on a 3-month-old boy waiting to go home with his 16-year-old mother and her boyfriend, who is not the baby's father. The baby was born premature even though the girl was in RVMC -- supposedly on bed rest. Nurses found her several times in "inappropriate encounters" with her boyfriend. Then she delivered, 16 weeks premature. Her baby had only one kidney and other life-threatening illnesses. In addition to taking her tiny baby, the teen mother also will lug home an oxygen tank and monitors needed to keep the baby alive. A community health nurse will be stopping by to help the couple care for the child. The nurse also gives the girl birth control shots. "When you start cutting nurses like they've done, you can't do anything but be there at the births," Turgesen said. "And that will create a dynamic of much bigger problems in the coming year." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA