Effects of CenteringPregnancy on Pregnancy Outcomes and Health Disparities in Racial Groups versus Traditional Prenatal Care

Background: Group prenatal care has been shown to be effective in reducing health disparities in pregnancy outcomes between racial/ethnic groups. Here, we assess the effectiveness of CenteringPregnancy, a group prenatal care program offered as an alternative to traditional prenatal care. Purpose: Our multidisciplinary team assessed the effectiveness of an innovative prenatal program intended to improve health outcomes for infants and mothers and reduce health disparities among populations. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted to examine differences with respect to several pregnancy outcomes such as low birth weight Results: There were no statistically significant differences between the groups on pregnancy outcomes. When the groups were stratified by race/ethnicity, however, African American mothers saw some benefit from CenteringPregnancy with their babies being born, on average, one week later (p=0.04) and having fewer NICU admittances (p=0.04) than their African American counterparts receiving traditional care. Conclusion: The CenteringPregnancy group prenatal care program may be especially valuable for African American mothers and may help reduce racial/ethnic disparities with respect to important pregnancy outcomes. Our results have implications that full adoption of CenteringPregnancy in clinical practice at the Anderson Clinic will better service communities of mothers who are underserved, at-risk and vulnerable