EMBRACING THE CONSEQUENCES HOSPITAL PROGRAM HELPS TEEN ATHLETES SEE THE OTHER SIDE OF PREMARITAL SEX.(LOCAL) - The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)

Byline: ELIZABETH SIMPSON THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT\

NORFOLK -- NORFOLK - The 18-year-old football player viewed pictures of a man ravaged by syphilis and saw a videotape of a teen-ager giving birth. But it was the sight of a real-life premature baby that reached James Jones where he lives.

``Two pounds, 6 ounces, man, that is hard,'' he said, shaking his head.

Jones and 27 other male athletes from Booker T. Washington High School - all muscles and elbows and big sneakers - took a sobering tour of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital on Friday to see firsthand the premature babies in the nursery and to hear women giving birth in the labor and delivery unit.

Their main mission was to learn about a subject they're more used to seeing on the big screen: sex.

This was a lesson in the less-glamorous consequences of the act. Teen births. Raising a premature child. Sexually transmitted diseases.

The tour was part of a teen-pregnancy prevention program that began after Horace Lambert started coaching basketball at Booker T. Washington High School four years ago. Five of his players were fathers.

A few were helping to raise their children, but others weren't, and none of them seemed to grasp the consequences of having early sex. ``The father goes on with his life and leaves the young lady to deal with it,'' Lambert said.

So Lambert decided to find some way to drive the lessons home.

He linked up with Lyn Gold, women's health coordinator at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, and in May 2000 started bringing groups of athletes to the hospital. Now he and wrestling coach Robert Toran bring football and basketball players and wrestlers twice a year.

``It's a real eye-opener for the kids,'' Lambert said. ``To tell you the truth, the first time I came, it was a real eye-opener for me.''

On Friday, Dianette Stokes, a health counselor from the Norfolk Health Department, began the program by talking with the boys about sexually transmitted diseases. Norfolk's STD rates are among the highest in the country.

``When we have sex, what is it about?'' she asked the boys.

``Love.''

``Making out.''

``Making a connection.''

``Intimacy.''

She showed what else it's about.

Pictures of genitals ravaged by gonorrhea. A man with lesions all over his face from syphilis, a disease that also left him blind. A woman covered in a scaly rash caused by the same disease.

``Oooo,' said one of the boys, wincing. ``That's nasty.''

Sometimes, Stokes explained, gonorrhea can cause so much damage that a man has to have scar tissue cut out of his urethra, which carries semen and urine through the penis.

Afterward, the boys shared their impressions of her frank talk.

``It was mind-blowing,'' said Vincent Jones, a 16-year-old basketball player.

Sentara labor and delivery nurse Jackie Jones then showed the boys a film of a teen-age girl giving birth. Afterward she asked how many of the boys had already had sex. Three admitted they had. At least half of them had friends who were already fathers.

``What was missing in this film?'' she asked.

``The dad,'' several said.

``How many of you are ready to be a parent?''

Only 16-year-old Mario Williams raised his hand. ``I already have a little girl,'' he said.

Next the boys toured the labor and delivery unit, pausing outside one room to listen as a woman groaned during labor.

Jackie Jones showed them a labor and delivery bed and asked 17-year-old Daryl Curtis to lie down on it. She put his sneakered feet in stirrups and had him pull his knees up in a childbirth position.

After plenty of ribbing from his friends, he got up. ``I have to sit down, I'm tired,'' he said.

In the nursery, the boys gathered around nurse Melinda Gillus, who explained that the spindly baby they were looking at was born a month ago, weighing only 1 1/2 pounds. She is still tube-fed and breathes with the help of a respirator.

``These babies are here sometimes for months,'' she said. ``Can you imagine how stressful that is for the parents?''

She also explained that teen moms were more likely to have premature babies than older women because they often don't get proper prenatal care.

``If more kids saw this, it would change their whole mind-frame,'' Jones said at the end of the tour. ``This is going to stay with me.''

Lambert and Gold said they'd like to offer the tours to girls, as well as to students from other high schools and maybe middle schools. The program, which includes seminars throughout the year, is funded by the Virginia Department of Health. About 140 boys have participated since May 2000.

The boys must have parental permission, but Lambert said he's never had trouble getting that consent. ``The parents come to me, asking for their sons to be included,'' he said. ``They're very excited about it.

``Anytime you have more knowledge, you make better decisions. Hopefully, these boys will go back to school and spread the word.''

Reach Elizabeth Simpson at 446-2635 or at liz@pilotonline.com

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO

Booker T. Washington basketball coach Horace Lambert says the program he started has been ``a real eye-opener for the kids.''

COLOR PHOTOS

Booker T. Washington basketball players Chase Womack, 15, left, and Daryl Curtis, 17, listen to a discussion of sexually transmitted diseases at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

BILL TIERNAN/THE VIRGINIAN PILOT Labor and delivery nurse Jackie Jones uses senior Daryl Curtis to demonstrate a birthing bed during Friday's pregnancy-prevention program.