Three clinics add group support concept to services

VCU Medical Center, St. Francis Medical Center and Cross Over Ministry clinics have added CenteringPregnancy groups to the prenatal services available.

VCU tested the concept in 2005 with a grant from the March of Dimes, said Margie Rickell, a certified nurse-midwife who oversees VCU's CenteringPregnancy program. The model was integrated into the obstetrics-gynecology program in 2006, and since then the ob-gyn program has been doing at least one group for every month, she said.

Staffers involved in running the groups have been trained in CenteringPregnancy practices. The Centering Healthcare Institute, a Connecticut-based nonprofit group considered pioneers of the concept, offers training and approves sites.

"We think it's the group support that makes the difference," Rickell said. "The group starts to jell and take over and become their own entity around session four or five."

Groups are brought together after the first trimester.

Cross Over Ministry started a group in July for women whose due dates are in December, said Lisa Filak, prenatal care coordinator at the ministry's clinics. This group is being offered in Spanish.

Filak, who facilitates the group with certified nurse-midwife Jessica Jordan and another person, said that when the women come for appointments, "they chat with each other a little bit. A lot of them don't have support, a lot of friends. They are all going through the same things. They can realize, 'I am not alone in this.'

"Even in just two meetings, you see them excited to see each other when they come for the second meeting."

A second group started this month. -- Tammie Smith