Sir.—It's Friday morning again, time for Teenage Mothers' Clinic. This is the best part of the week for me in the inner city hospital where I've always worked. I started this clinic to provide care to both teenage mothers and their children at the same time and place. It's as close to a family practice as I get as a pediatrician.
Elizabeth and her 4-year-old daughter, Jacinda, were two of my first patients when the clinic began 4 years ago. I haven't seen them in 9 months. Now Elizabeth is close to 20 years of age and is almost too old to be cared for in a pediatric setting. I find it hard to let go, though; I like to see what happens to these families as the mothers pass through adolescence.
Elizabeth, like so many of the adolescent mothers I treat, never made it to high school. She'd