Pink and blue balloons were everywhere. Gifts, a fantastic spread of great food, and smiling faces greeted everyone as they walked through the door. Excitement and electricity filled the air. Sounds like just your average baby shower, right? Except there was nothing average about the baby shower put on by Texas Tech nursing professor Linda Brice, RN, PhD, FNP, and two of her classes a couple weeks ago. In conjunction with the March of Dimes Stork’s Nest Drive, Brice and her students helped raise almost $29,000 at the event to help raise awareness-and hopes-about the high rate of teenage pregnancy, STDs, and premature births in West Texas.

Stork’s Nest is quite simple: It’s a prenatal education program operated by the March of Dimes and the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority that offers incentives and encouragement for young women to keep their unborn babies on a healthy path. Soon-to-be mothers, who often struggle in lower-income environments, earn points for things such as signing up for the program, keeping doctor’s appointments, attending educational classes, and signing up for Medicaid. After the baby is born, they can still earn points for attending check-ups and getting immunizations. Then, with the points they’ve earned, they can “buy” baby supplies that they may not otherwise be able to afford.

“It’s a win-win situation,” Brice says.

Throughout the semester-within her community health class and her OB class-Brice’s students go out in the community and seek sponsors and donations for the baby shower. In February, they sent out 600 letters to businesses (car dealerships, banks, restaurants, etc.), organizations, and prominent individuals. Combined with the solicitations, the classes are spreading knowledge about Stork’s Nest and the issue of teenage pregnancy, along with the dangers of STDs and complicated and premature births.

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