INFANT MORTALITY PROJECT:
Mentorship program helps Detroit mother make her way
For woman, stranger becomes her lifesaver
July 8, 2002
By Wendy Wendland-Bowyer
Free Press Staff Writer
Fifth in an occasional series about infant mortality
When Thalia Peeples gave birth to her now 4-month-old daughter Aerielle, she lacked a phone, a car, a job and stable family support. A couple months earlier, she stopped visiting her obstetrician, who no longer accepted Medicaid. Peeples then consulted with a group of midwives. Her long-term relationship with her baby's father ended. Her mental health care provider, where she was treated for bipolar disorder, abruptly closed.
But through it all, she had a mentor.
Kim McCullen of Harper Woods and Peeples of Detroit were paired through the Infant Mortality Project. The program takes Wayne County mothers who have certain risk factors that make it more likely their babies could die before 1 year of age. To be considered high-risk, the mother typically struggles economically and has a limited education, a history of having other low-birth-weight children or miscarriages, or any slew of other social or medical problems.
The program started in the mid-1980s when Wayne County's high infant-mortality rate was gaining state and local officials' attention, and several Catholic-affiliated health systems wanted to do something about it.
The mentors are trained volunteers who visit the at-risk mothers regularly throughout the pregnancy and the baby's first year. They make referrals and assist the mothers with challenges. They also may connect the mothers with parenting, fatherhood and literacy classes offered by the project.
"I think women, when they're pregnant, need a community around them," said Sharon Wallace, director of the Infant Mortality Project. "I also think when a person feels that someone else wants to dedicate time to them, they tend to do better inkeeping their appointments, and they have better information on how to cope after the baby comes."
During the project's 15-year existence, more than 1,100 mothers have been matched with volunteers, and only three babies died. Of the babies who died, all were born with extensive medical complications, Wallace said.
Such results are remarkable. And much of the reason behind it, Wallace said, is the support that comes from relationships like that between Peeples and McCullen.
Trying Times
In June 2001, Peeples went to the doctor thinking she had the flu and found out she was pregnant. The timing wasn't great: She and her boyfriend of more than a year had broken up.
A case manager at Aurora Healthcare, where she was a psychiatric patient, knew about her tumultuous past and the miscarriage she suffered a year ago, and recommended she enroll in the Infant Mortality Project.
Peeples got a home visit from Wallace, who matches the volunteers and mothers-to-be. Peeples, 21, and McCullen, who's in her late 20s, liked each other right away. In the beginning, Peeples and McCullen -- a nurse at Detroit's St. John Hospital who has a 2-year-old daughter -- talked about how the pregnancy was going and how life would change when Aerielle arrived. That day came March 2, and nothing went how Peeples envisioned.
Two days earlier, Peeples fell while crossing the street to catch a bus home after picking up clothes and other items from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic organization that provides clothing and other goods to those in need. Peeples didn't think any more about it. On March 1, she went in to Detroit's Hutzel Hospitalfor a scheduled appointment when doctors told her she was losing fluids, likely from the fall. They said she would need to deliver her baby that day.
Peeples' overnight bags were still sitting just inside her front door. Her rent was due; she hadn't paid it. But for now, all this would have to wait.
At 12:46 a.m. March 2, Aerielle Daviesh Jordan Peeples was born, weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces. McCullen, who was working that night at the hospital, came by the next day.
One day after she and the baby were released from the hospital, Peeples returned and was treated for extensive bleedingrelated to childbirth. Three days later, she took Aerielle to the hospital because the baby wasn't eating. Doctors told her Aerielle was fine. Four days later she took Aerielle to the clinic because Aerielle, who couldn't stay awake for more than 15 minutes, was vomiting, not alert, and having difficulty breathing and keeping her head up. Doctors there told her everything was fine, Peeples said.
The next day, when Aerielle was 11 days old with the same symptoms, Peeples took her to Detroit Children's Hospital of Michigan. There, initial tests came back positive for meningitis. Aerielle remained hospitalized for a week.
During that time, Peeples rarely left her daughter's side. McCullen visited and took Peeples home to shower and clean up before returning to the hospital. McCullen left a book called "Joy for the Journey: A Woman's Book of Joyful Promises."
Source of Support
Ringgg.
One month later it was McCullen, calling Peeples on her new phone. She planned to take Peeples, who quit high school at age 15, and Aerielle to Plymouth to pick up Peeples' General Equivalency Degree test results.
McCullen helped Peeples find a place to take the exam, got the project to pay the testing fees and drove Peeples out there on testing day.
Peeples passed.
"Look at that. Look at that! I'm blinded by the shininess," Peeples said, laughing as she held her certificate for McCullen to see.
During the month after Aerielle's birth, Peeples and McCullen met regularly. McCullen dropped off a Baby Symphony tape to help the baby's development. She gave Peeples advice and her own daughter's car seat.
But this visit to Plymouth ended up being one of their last for a while. Shortly after the visit, McCullen became pregnant and was unable to eat. She has been hospitalized several times. But Peeples and McCullen still talk on the phone when McCullen is physically able. There has been much to discuss.
About a month ago, Peeples obtained a personal protection order against her former boyfriend, who she said can have an explosive temperament.
Also, in early June, Peeples and Aerielle were in a fatal car accident in northeast Detroit. The driver of the other car died, and the cab driver of the car she was in was seriously hurt. Peeples, who did not have a seat belt on, went flying into the Plexiglas separating the driver from the passenger, flattening her nose, blackening her eye and bruising her body. Aerielle, who was not in a child safety seat, suffered a fractured right shoulder.
Peeples is still without mental health treatment for her bipolar disorder despite visiting a new agency more than once in an effort to resume care. Then, a couple weeks ago, Peeples said, a male friend came to her house and threatened to break the door down. She called police.
Because McCullen cannot leave her home, Wallace, the project's director, now visits Peeples. Aerielle is doing well. And Peeples, with the project's help, is getting tutoring to prepare for classes this fall at Wayne County Community College.
"I really and truly think it was something the Lord wanted me to be in," Peeples said of the project. "It was something for me to better myself. It is the positive side for all the negative in my life."
Contact Wendy Wendland-Bowyer at 313-223-4792 or wendland@freepress.com.