CenteringPregnancy: Engaging patients to create caring communities for healthy pregnancies

CenteringPregnancy is an interdisciplinary model of group prenatal care. It integrates the three major components of care: health assessment, education, and support, into a unified program within a setting where a group of women with similar gestational ages meet together, learn care skills, participate in facilitated discussion, develop a support network with the other members of the group and fosters the building of a community among the participants. Women are engaged as active participants in their own health care and are empowered to choose health-promoting behaviors. Pregnancy outcomes – specifically increased birth weight, reduced number of preterm births, increased antenatal knowledge and readiness for labor and delivery, and satisfaction with care– support the effectiveness of this model for the delivery of prenatal care. In this presentation, the CenteringPregnancy Model will be described and the results of this model of care will be discussed.