Re:Start The Center for Adult Education will soon begin offering a nine-week Mom's Club program for expectant mothers who do not have a GED and are less than 27 weeks pregnant.
Re:Start's Judith Miller gives baby baskets to Mom's Club program participants."What we've found is that the mother's education level is directly connected to whether or not her child will graduate from high school," said Judith Miller of Re:Start, who leads the Mom's Club program. "We started focusing on expectant moms in the area, many of whom don't have a high school diploma. Studies show that 50 percent of people on Medicare don't know what the word prenatal means."
The new nine-week intensive Mom's Club program will be held on-site at the Re:Start center on Amnicola Highway. The program is free and will begin July 8. Registration is currently open and Miller encourages interested participants to register early. Only mothers who are less than 27 weeks into their pregnancies can participate. Each week, participants will meet on Friday for three hours to learn the basics of pregnancy and motherhood.
"This program will empower them to sit down and start taking responsibility for their care," Miller said.
Miller will give each participant "Baby Basics," written by Heidi Markoff, which has detailed information on everything from doctors appointments and pregnancy vocabulary to an emphasis on health and nutrition for both the baby and mother.
"A lot of moms in the program don't have a lot of group support or family support," said Miller, who hopes to give each mother the tools necessary to support herself.
Mothers will learn the importance of breast feeding, creating a budget and planning meals. There will also be arts and crafts time for making bibs and blankets. Mothers will leave the program with a baby basket filled with useful items from baby books to bibs and will have started GED test preparations.
Re:Start has hosted monthly Mom's Club meetings for four years at various sites around Chattanooga. The program began with grant money from the Junior League of Chattanooga. The nine-month program is still in place and is open to expectant mothers no matter how far along they are in their pregnancies. The meetings are held at Greenwood Terrace's club house the second Tuesday of each month from 4 to 6 p.m., at Northside Neighborhood House the third Tuesday of each month from 10 a.m. to noon and at Soddy-Daisy Head Start the third Thursday of each month from 9 to 11 a.m.
Re:Start also provides GED test preparation for adults 18 years and older. Seventeen-year-olds can participate if they have officially un-enrolled from the Hamilton County school system. Re:Start hosts an intake with orientation every Monday starting at 8:30 a.m.