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 They say nothing prepares you for parenthood. However, school nurses are
now challenging that cliché through an E-baby project.
E-babies were first developed in the United States in 1994, giving people
an opportunity to see what having children is like prior to parenthood.
Now they are here in Wigan borough and young people are getting a real eye
opener into the challenges of looking after a baby.
GCSE Child Development pupils are spending a weekend attending to every
need of a 'Baby Think It Over' infant simulator. These computerised babies
are programmed to mimic a real infant so they require feeding, changing,
winding, loving and rocking.
After having looked after an E-baby, Saint Thomas More Catholic High
School pupil Rebecca Bissell, 15, said: "I got a bit frustrated with the
baby when I was woken up in the middle of the night. The hardest bit about
it was when the baby was crying and I didn't know what was wrong with it.
"I have never really thought about having a baby before but after this
weekend I do not think I could do it at this point in my life."
Each individual doll is programmed differently, based on the behaviour
patterns of a real-life baby. The random behaviour of the doll teaches
young people that a baby's behaviour is not something that can be
predicted and that parenthood is about constantly reacting to the needs of
a child.
After the weekend, the electronic dolls are returned to the school nursing
team, to enable the school nurses to give the young carers feedback on
their performance as a parent.
Rebecca's mother, Catherine Bissell, was glad her daughter got the chance
to care for an E-baby and she thinks all young people could benefit from
this scheme. "I am very proud of how Rebecca coped," she said.
"Although exhausted, Rebecca has had a valuable experience which I believe
all teenage girls could benefit from. We are all now looking forward to a
peaceful night's sleep!"
The School Nursing Team set the programmes for the high-tech tots in
conjunction with Ashton, Leigh & Wigan Primary Care Trust, who work
alongside schools to promote positive health.
School Nurse Jenny Pye said: "The participants get a real insight into how
demanding it is to care for a new-born baby and, at 14 or 15 years-old,
they usually realise it is not for them at this point in their lives.
"This project is not about deterring people from having children. It is
about raising awareness about how time consuming and demanding being a
parent is. Two schools have signed up for the scheme so far. However, the
School Nursing Service hope more schools will follow Saint Thomas More
Catholic High School and Saint Peter's Catholic High School in delivering
the project.
The E-baby scheme has been introduced in the face of widespread teenage
pregnancy locally. Wigan borough has one of the highest levels of teenage
pregnancy anywhere in Britain and several initiatives have been launched
in an attempt to reduce it.
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