Centering Groups

[Heather Marie]

I go to a midwife and Centering Groups are one of the choices for prenatal care. We had our first appointment last week like this. It was wonderful! It was a two hour appointment and you get to chart your own numbers. It is kind of nice to have access to those mysterious medical charts that often seem off limits, lol. I think having the other mamas there will be so great as we continue through our pregnancies. It is also awesome to get to hear the heartbeats of all those babies!

Anyone else doing prenatal care in Centering Groups or other nontraditional prenatal care?

[Valerieg]

That sounds really neat! We don't have anything like that around here. Even the birth centers are over an hour away (leave it to conservative Cincinnati, OH).

How many moms are at each centering group? I just think it'd be so much fun to hear all those little heartbeats. How cute!

[scheelimama]

That's such a neat idea!

At my birth center in Kansas (we've moved and are going to a different birth center this time), you weighed yourself and did your own pee strip and just reported to them when you saw the midwife. I really liked that. I don't think my new birth center does that, which I'm sad about. I think it's empowering to women to let them do some of their own prenatal care.

[Heather Marie]

I was so excited when I found out it was offered in our area. I really didn't expect to even find a midwife let alone one like I have found. The midwife's office is just off her house, so the Cenetring Group meets in her kitchen and living room and she has snacks and drinks for us. It is so relaxed and cozy.

Usually the groups have 4-5 people. Spouses are always welcome and encouraged to attend. We are given our chart when we get there and we weigh ourselves, dip our own urine, take our own blood pressure, and we also record everything on our own including the babies HB and the fundal height. I didn't know how I would feel about doing group care, but it really is great. And you can of course still have private visits if you want.

At our first group appointment the midwife had these great canvas bags filled with goodies and magazines for us. It also had a binder with 10 dividers that is filled with some worksheets and other information. She said we would have some guest speakers along the way, but the goal is to provide patient driven care opposed to physician driven care. There is also a RN/Doula that attends and helps out.

[LittleBrownDog]

That sounds awesome! At my MW office I weigh myself and do my own pee stick and write it on the little mini-chart they gave me. Then I hand it to her so she can record it in the "official" chart.

But how cool to share all the experiences of pregnancy with other mamas-to-be!

[scheelimama]

Are you all at close to the same point in your pregnancy?