Pregnant women receive prenatal care in a group setting
YOUNGSTOWN
The Mercy Health Women’s Care Center on Wednesday unveiled a new initiative, CenteringPregnancy, aimed at improving Mahoning County’s dismal infant-mortality rate.
Under the CenteringPregnancy program, pregnant women meet in groups to receive and participate in their prenatal care, share information, provide support for one another, and socialize, said Nicole Parish, program director.
The medical director of the Women’s Care Center is Dr. Robert McClusky, associate clinical professor of OB/GYN at Northeastern Ohio Medical University. Sara McNicholas, licensed social worker, is CenteringPregnancy program coordinator.
The first group of women in the program, due to deliver their babies in March and April 2016, are scheduled to have the first of 10 meetings Wednesday in St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, said Parish, a certified nurse-midwife and board certified women’s health nurse practitioner.
The most recent data from 2013, provided by the Ohio Health Department, shows that Ohio’s infant-mortality rate is 23 percent higher than the national average of six infant deaths per 1,000 live births. Ohio is ranked 48th nationally in overall infant mortality and 49th for black infant mortality, with a rate of 13.8 deaths per 1,000 live births.
In Mahoning County, the news is even worse.
The black infant-mortality rate is 16.2 per 1,000 live births and the overall IMR is second highest in the state, said Parish.
The leading causes of infantmortality, defined as the death of a live-born baby before his or her first birthday, are prematurity, birth defects and safe-sleep issues, Parish said.
A 2003 study found that, on average, CenteringPregnancy, a model for group prenatal care, resulted in babies staying in the womb two weeks longer weighing 1 pound more at birth, said Margie Rickell, featured speaker at Tuesday’s program roll-out.
Centering, said Rickell, a certified nurse midwife, makes a difference.
“It is a facilitated, interactive conversation that informs and empowers the participants. A poll of women said they preferred receiving their prenatal care in a group,” said Rickell, who is the Women’s Care Center Centering consultant.
The group provides social support, no waiting, a time for sharing and learning, and for those afraid to ask questions, they’ll get the answers because someone else will probably ask the question, she said.
“I cannot believe we are not doing this for every woman,” Rickell said.