LOOKING BACK : The People...

When Kathryn Hall started the Birthing Project in her Sacramento living room in 1988, she never dreamed it would come so far so fast. Last winter, Hall was operating from a storefront and had started turning around her city’s birth statistics (View, Feb. 16). Her idea--to paircommunity volunteers with down-and-out pregnant women--was leading to more healthy babies and fewer sickly infants.

This year, Hall says, has been the greatest of her life. “We’re growing more healthy babies--about 150 clients pass through our door each day. On Dec. 17, we opened a women’s health care clinic with four examining rooms. Birthing Projects have opened in 18 other states this year. And the new Los Angeles group is having about 50 babies already.” She says about 25 more projects will open in 1993.

Hall received California’s “Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Community Achievement Award” in October. “It’s the highest honor in its field, usually given to professionals. For us to get it was an acknowledgment of the role that the average person can play,” she says.