OUTCOMES OF LATINA WOMEN IN CENTERINGPREGNANCY GROUP PRENATAL CARE COMPARED WITH INDIVIDUAL PRENATAL CARE

Abstract

Introduction CenteringPregnancy is a client-centered model of group prenatal care that brings women together into small groups to receive care through assessment, education, and support. As Spanish-speaking CenteringPregnancy groups become more common, outcomes of Latinas who attend these groups must be assessed. The purpose of this retrospective cohort study was to compare pregnancy outcomes of Latina women who completed CenteringPregnancy in a public health clinic with women who completed individual care in the same clinic during the same time. Methods Medical charts were reviewed retrospectively to examine differences in pregnancy outcomes and maternal factors in both prenatal care groups. Latina Spanish-speaking women who completed CenteringPregnancy were matched with Latina Spanish-speaking women who completed individual care within the same time frame. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine maternal and birth outcomes. Results A total of 487 patient charts were obtained for data collection (CenteringPregnancy n = 247, individual n = 240). No differences in low-birth-weight or preterm births were observed between the groups. Compared with women in individual care, women in CenteringPregnancy had higher odds of giving birth vaginally (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23-5.36), attending prenatal care visits (aOR, 11.03; 95% CI, 4.53-26.83), attending postpartum care visits (aOR, 2.20; 95% CI, 1.20-4.05), and feeding their infants formula only (aOR, 6.07; 95% CI, 2.57-14.3). Women in CenteringPregnancy also had lower odds of gaining below the recommended amount of gestational weight (aOR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.22-0.78). Discussion Women in CenteringPregnancy had higher health care utilization, but there were no differences in preterm birth or low birth weight. Randomized studies are needed to eliminate selection bias.