Centering Pregnancy: How providing funds, training, and support for sites is making a difference in the lives of Texas families

Objective: To provide an overview of the March of Dimes Centering Pregnancy project in Texas. The Texas Chapter of the March of Dimes is currently providing grant funding to 16 clinic sites in Texas to implement the Centering Pregnancy model of group prenatal care. We estimate 1000 women will participate by December 2008. As a component of their grant agreement each site agrees to participate in an evaluation of their program. Previous research published in the Green Journal in August of 2007 showed a 33% reduction in the risk of preterm birth among Centering Pregnancy participants. The March of Dimes Centering Pregnancy evaluation study is based on the hypotheses that, among pregnant women who participate in the March of Dimes Centering Pregnancy (CP) program:

1. Social support is inversely related to maternal stress.

2. Maternal stress is inversely related to the total number of Centering Pregnancy sessions attended.

3. Social support and maternal stress explain variation in infant birth weight.

4. African American women have higher infant birth weights than the state of Texas average for African American women.

Participants complete two maternal stress surveys during their prenatal care and outcome data is collected from the medical record after delivery. Initial data is being collected currently and shows promising results. Significant data will be available by summer of 2008. The March of Dimes provides funding, training and ongoing technical support to sites implementing Centering Pregnancy.