Births Orange County

She was just a little girl. Sure, she could talk as tough as any teen-ager on the block. She could hang with the older guys, smoking dope and drinking booze. She could come home from school to an empty apartment, scrounge together some form of dinner, stay up late killing time with whatever hodgepodge of pals wandered by. But she was only 11--an age at which most girls are considered too young to baby-sit the kids next-door. And she was pregnant.

Two sisters became aunts and mothers simultaneously when they give birth to baby girls at the same time--the same minute--and just one room apart. The women had different doctors and went into labor at different times, but both delivered at 8:35 p.m. Wednesday in the obstetrics wing of Santa Ana Hospital Medical Center. "They're practically twins," hospital spokeswoman Kelly Quach said of the newborn cousins.

Two sisters became aunts and mothers simultaneously when they give birth to baby girls at the same time--the same minute--and just one room apart. The women had different doctors and went into labor at different times, but both delivered at 8:35 p.m. Wednesday in the obstetrics wing of Santa Ana Hospital Medical Center. "They're practically twins," hospital spokeswoman Kelly Quach said of the newborn cousins.

She was just a little girl. Sure, she could talk as tough as any teen-ager on the block. She could hang with the older guys, smoking dope and drinking booze. She could come home from school to an empty apartment, scrounge together some form of dinner, stay up late killing time with whatever hodgepodge of pals wandered by. But she was only 11--an age at which most girls are considered too young to baby-sit the kids next-door. And she was pregnant.

For February, 1988 Hospital Births St. Joseph Hospital 469 Fountain Valley Regional Hospital & Medical Center 362 UCI Medical Center 346 Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center 209 Hoag Memorial Hospital 199 Martin Luther Hospital 175 St. Jude Hospital--Fullerton 129 Santa Ana Hospital & Medical Center 108 Chapman General Hospital 103 St.Jude Hospital--Yorba Linda 79 Humana Hospital--Huntington Beach 52 South Coast Medical Center 51 Anaheim General Hospital 50 Humana Hospital--W.

Orange County has an opportunity to accomplish something that few, if any, urban areas in the entire nation have been able to achieve--a form of ethnic integration. The county's ethnic mix is changing faster than ever before. The population was once nearly totally Anglo, but today the numbers of Latino and Southeast Asian people are growing faster than the white population.

After facing a crisis situation just two years ago, Orange County has improved dramatically its obstetric and prenatal services for poor pregnant women. There still is much to be done, but more women are getting care during pregnancy and finding a facility for delivery when they reach term. Part of the credit for this change can go to the state of California, which improved its reimbursement rates and made an important change in Medi-Cal eligibility rules.

The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the Western industrialized world. Nationally 1.1 million teen-age girls become pregnant each year. One-fifth of these pregnancies occur within the first six months after initiation to sex. According to the Coalition Concerned With Adolescent Pregnancy, more than one-third of the nation's present 14-year-olds will have at least one pregnancy before age 20.

In a novel program aimed at ensuring healthy babies, the Orange County Health Care Agency is looking for women--preferably mothers--to serve as mentors for pregnant teen-agers. The mothers' role will be to provide support and friendship to the young women, said Cindi Tapia, coordinator of the new program.

The crisis that has overtaken obstetric facilities serving the poor in Los Angeles and Orange counties has a single cause: the under-funding of Medi-Cal, the state and federal program that provides health services to many of the nation's low-income families. Sadly, there is no cheap, shortcut solution. As long as the under-funding continues, the health and safety of thousands of newborns and their mothers will be in peril.

For March, 1988 Hospital Births St. Joseph Hospital 509 Fountain Valley Regional Hospital & Medical Center 417 UCI Medical Center 369 Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center 243 Hoag Memorial Hospital 232 Martin Luther Hospital 192 St. Jude Hospital--Fullerton 136 Santa Ana Hospital & Medical Center 114 St.Jude Hospital--Yorba Linda 86 Chapman General Hospital 79 Humana Hospital--W.