The March of Dimes, Rhode Island Chapter has awarded a grant to Women’s Care Inc., private practice affiliated with Women & Infants Health Care Alliance, to support a model of prenatal care aimed at enhancing maternal and child needs in Rhode Island. This group prenatal care program, based on the CenteringPregnancy™ model, has shown to decrease preterm birth by 34 percent in the participants in large, randomized, controlled trials.
Women’s Care, with the support of the Rhode Island chapter of the March of Dimes, will be begin implementing group prenatal care in February. The model consists of gathering eight to 12 women who are due to give birth in the same month. In each prenatal visit, the women take and record their own vital signs, receive a private evaluation with their midwife or doctor, and participate in an hour-long group discussion of set topics related to their developing pregnancy and their preparation for birth and parenthood.
This grant is one of many that the March of Dimes awards in pursuit of its mission to prevent prematurity and infant mortality.
“We will use the March of Dimes grant as seed money to meet our objective of providing mothers and babies with increased childbirth education, offering breastfeeding information, and increasing their chance of having a full term pregnancy,” said Katherine Parsons, CNM, a nurse midwife with Women’s Care. “When a woman calls Women’s Care Inc., she hears ‘Welcome to Women’s Care, where a community is born.’ Group prenatal care will complement that mission beautifully by creating a community of support in each group among these women who are due to give birth around the same time.”
Group prenatal visits will begin in Women’s Care’s Providence office in February and will expand to the new Pawtucket office in late 2014. Women’s Care will also be assisting the effort of growing group prenatal care throughout Rhode Island. For information, or to make an appointment with a Women’s Care provider, please call (401) 727-4800.
About the March of Dimes
The March of Dimes is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes funds programs of research, community services, education, and advocacy to save babies and in 2003 launched a campaign to address the increasing rate of premature birth. For more information, visit the March of Dimes Web site or its Spanish language web site.