2.03.04
Centering Pregnancy

A new trend in prenatal care is allowing mothers-to-be to participate in their own care and receive more information.

Centering Pregnancy is an example of new programs that offer expanded prenatal care, support and education in a group setting. Helen Moose, nurse midwife at the Springfield Center for Family Medicine at SIU School of Medicine, explains the program.

SOUND BITE: " . . .women who have due dates about the same time, usually within a 4 to 6 week period, meet together as a group and at each meeting they are seen individually at the beginning, where the health care provider measures and listens to the baby and asks them if there are any questions or problems."

The women take their own weight and blood pressure. The group sessions allow women to focus on various aspects of pregnancy and prenatal care, childbirth, parenting and nutrition as well as share experiences. Moose says there are other benefits to the group pregnancy sessions.

SOUND BITE: " . . . they get to share with other women who are going through the same thing. People move so frequently, that they may not have the traditional support like women used to have. So this sometimes provides the support, especially for like single moms or women whose mothers may be in another state, but it gives them the opportunity to have support within the group . . ."

Moose says in communities where Centering Pregnancy programs are operating, pre-term deliveries have declined and birth weights have improved in high-risk populations. For more information, women can talk to the physicians providing their prenatal care.