Clark County women seeking prenatal care now have the opportunity to receive more comprehensive care without increased cost.
The Vancouver Clinic midwifery program and PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center are teaming up to offer the only CenteringPregnancy program in Southwest Washington.
o For more information on the local CenteringPregnancy program, visit PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center’s Family Birth Center website, or call PeaceHealth Southwest nurse navigator Michelle Bedrosian at 360-514-6328.
o To enroll in the program, call The Vancouver Clinic at 360-TVC-APPT (360-882-2778).
CenteringPregnancy is a group prenatal care program used across the country. Centering brings together women with similar due dates for individual health assessments, group education sessions and community building during regular two-hour sessions. A handful of provider groups in the Tacoma and Seattle areas offer Centering, as do a couple of groups in Portland.
The local program will begin Oct. 28. Program leaders say it will give women more face-time with their provider than traditional prenatal care — about 20 hours compared with about two hours — and will come at no extra cost.
Research has also shown the program improves outcomes by reducing premature labor and increasing breast-feeding rates.
“It’s higher-level care,” said Lauren Andronici, lead midwife at The Vancouver Clinic. “It’s better care.”
Improving care
With traditional prenatal care, women meet with their doctor or midwife for an initial visit that lasts about 30 minutes. After that, the appointments are typically only about 10 to 15 minutes. During that time, the provider takes measurements, checks on the baby’s development, answers questions and tries to provide some education for the mom-to-be.
With traditional care, the patient may be one of more than 20 women a midwife sees that day, Andronici said.
“Sometimes, I feel like I’m on a hamster wheel,” she said. “I know we can do better.”
That, she said, is why the midwifery practice is so excited for CenteringPregnancy.
The dozen women enrolled in the first Centering group are all due in April and have already had their initial prenatal visit with a midwife or physician. After the first trimester, they’ll begin group prenatal care led by a certified nurse midwife and a medical assistant who will remain their caregivers throughout the pregnancies.
For the first four months, the two-hour group meetings are monthly. Then, for the final three months of the program, the group will meet every two weeks.
The April Centering group is already full and has a waiting list. The May group is filling up, and they have a couple of names on the list for the June group, as well. After the first few months, they hope to expand the program to have two groups per month.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm in the community, because the need is there,” said Linda Licata, director of women and children’s services at PeaceHealth Southwest.
The Centering meetings will take place in separate space, away from the hospital and clinic grounds. Women will be greeted with snacks and an assortment of teas. They’ll wear handmade name badges and will sit in chairs arranged in a circle, with oversized red pillows available for additional comfort.
Each meeting will begin with the women checking and recording their own vitals, such as their blood pressure and weight. Then, each woman will have a brief one-on-one meeting with the midwife, who will take belly measurements, perform ultrasounds and check on the baby’s development.
After all of the women have completed their vitals and measurements, the group session begins. Each session has a variety of discussion topics, such as nutrition, oral health, mental relaxation, family planning, labor and delivery, postpartum depression and newborn care.
“It’s so much more comprehensive than what I can cover in a traditional visit,” Andronici said.
The program is open to women of all ages, those in their first pregnancy and those who already have children. Spouses are also welcome to attend the group meetings and everyone signs a confidentiality agreement.
Women in the Centering group can schedule additional appointments with their midwife if they have questions or concerns that can’t be addressed during the group meetings or the brief one-on-one meetings.
Improving outcomes
More than half a million babies are born prematurely in the U.S. each year. A randomized trial at Yale-New Haven Hospital and Emory University Hospital in 2007 found that women who participated in the Centering program had a 33 percent reduced risk of premature birth compared to traditional prenatal care.
The trial also found that women who participated in Centering reported greater satisfaction with their care and had more prenatal care knowledge, felt more prepared for labor and delivery and were more likely to initiate breast-feeding.
The program also builds a sense of community and support among pregnant women, said Kate Fields, midwife at The Vancouver Clinic.
Throughout the course of the program, the women form relationships and begin to care about one another, Fields said. They support each other throughout their pregnancies and, in many cases, long after the babies are born, she said.
“You don’t get this experience in the everyday world,” Fields said, “and you don’t get it in traditional care.”
