One of my favorite ways to provide care to women and their families during pregnancy is in a group setting. Your physician or midwifery practice may offer you this in a program called Centering Pregnancy.
If you participate in this care it is your prenatal visit, you do not also go to the office for any other regular appointments. All your care will be done at one of your group prenatal care visits including labs and the scheduling of ultrasounds.
In group prenatal care you usually meet with the same provider and group of about 8-10 couples during your entire pregnancy.
The sessions are about two hours long and during that time are structured something like the following:
- You will come into the room which is set up in a circle and get your blood pressure and weight done while waiting to visit one on one with your provider to ask personal questions, listen to your baby’s heart beat and measure your fundus
- After all couples have arrived and met with your provider the group comes together for the rest of the prenatal visit
- There is usually a beginning activity, interactive education based on where you are in your pregnancy, a time for questions, and often a time for a group activity
- Visits are made at the same time intervals that other prenatal care visits are scheduled. Many couples love this type of prenatal care even if they are unsure when starting because they meet together with couples that have similar due dates, many of the same questions, and they develop relationships that often extend years after the babies are all born!
- My favorite part is when we do a reunion 1-2 months after the last baby in the group is born. We meet and everyone gets to tell their birth story, take pictures and visit with all the new babies!
Visits are made at the same time intervals that other prenatal care visits are scheduled. Many couples love this type of prenatal care even if they are unsure when starting because they meet together with couples that have similar due dates, many of the same questions, and they develop relationships that often extend years after the babies are all born!
My favorite part is when we do a reunion 1-2 months after the last baby in the group is born. We meet and everyone gets to tell their birth story, take pictures and visit with all the new babies!
