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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Alison Pierce Tolley, MPH, CHES, March of Dimes, Georgia Chapter, 1776 Peachtree Street, NW, Suite 100, Atlanta, GA 30309, 404-350-9800, atolley@marchofdimes.com and Claire Westdahl, CNM, MPH, FACNM, Emory University Nurse-Midwifery Service, Henry W. Grady Foundation, Inc., 80 Jesse Hill Jr. Drive, SE, Box 26105, Atlanta, GA 30303.

Objective: To provide an overview of the CenteringPregnancy Program, which provides group prenatal care for pregnant, immigrant Latinas. The overall goals are increased prenatal care compliance and satisfaction and improved birth outcomes. Background: Immigrant Latinas are among the most high-risk pregnant women within Grady Health System due to language, financial and psycho-social barriers to adequate prenatal care. Project: In 2005, the March of Dimes, Georgia Chapter, partnered with the Grady Health System to support their CenteringPregnancy Program with a chapter community grant for $25,000. The CenteringPregnancy Program combines prenatal care and pregnancy education into ten group sessions. This group format has been shown to empower women, thus increasing their prenatal care compliance and improving their birth outcomes. The program is led by a Spanish-speaking child birth educator and a certified nurse midwife (CNM). Parking vouchers and bus tokens are provided. Women join a group after their initial prenatal evaluation and at each session the standard prenatal assessment is completed individually by the CNM. Ideally, women will not need to re-enter an exam room until 38-40 weeks gestation. The discussion topics are related to pregnancy, childbirth and parenting and are framed by self-assessments. Results: 49 women have been reached and 214 group prenatal visits have been conducted. 22 women have delivered, with only 3 babies born preterm and none born low birth weight. Through satisfaction surveys, the participants rated the overall satisfaction and success of the program as 9.85 out of 10. The presentation will discuss major successes and lessons learned.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• List two effective components of a CenteringPregnancy Program.
• Describe the benefits of the group session component in a CenteringPregnancy Program.
• Analyze lessons learned learned from the Grady Health System CenteringPregnancy Program.

Keywords: Access to Health Care, Prenatal Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation