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Psychosocial outcomes of group prenatal care

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Abstract

Purpose

Group prenatal care provides an alternative model of prenatal care that allows for collaboration with peers, education, discussion, and self-management training in addition to standard prenatal care. Previous research on group prenatal care has demonstrated a decreased risk of preterm labor and of low birth weight babies, increased pregnancy knowledge, and decreased perceived stress in certain populations. CenteringPregnancy®, an evidence-based model of group prenatal care, has been the focus of group prenatal care research, which has demonstrated such improvements in health outcomes as well as positive health behaviors. Could CenteringPregnancy® also reduce rates or severity of depression through its potential to increase support and knowledge of pregnancy for patients? This study aims to assess factors that may reduce risk of depression as well as rates of depression in women enrolled in CenteringPregnancy® compared to women in traditional, individual care.

Methods

This non-randomized study collected data from patients at their initial obstetric visit and again at their postpartum visit to compare psychosocial outcomes between those participants in CenteringPregnancy® versus individual prenatal care.

Results

The majority (64%) of primiparous women chose CenteringPregnancy® (×2 = 8.6399, df = 2, p = 0.003). A significant increase in Pregnancy Knowledge Scale (PKS) scores was observed in the CenteringPregnancy® group (p = 0.0278). Women in both groups revealed no significant difference in depression scores, as measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS).

Conclusions

Our research adds support to current literature suggesting group prenatal care is equivalent to, and perhaps more beneficial (in certain psychosocial arenas) than traditional prenatal care (Lathrop in Nurs Womens Health 17:118–130, 2013).

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Funding

Minimal funding from department of psychiatry had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, writing of the manuscript, or any other part of the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioral Health Pavilion of the Virginias, 1333 Southview Drive, Bluefield, WV, 24701, USA

    Emily Boothe

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Wake Forest Baptist Health, 791 Jonestown Road, Winston Salem, NC, 27103, USA

    Marta Olenderek & Sebastian Kaplan

  3. Wake Forest Baptist Health, Downtown Health Plaza, 1200 N Martin Luther King Jr Drive, Winston Salem, NC, 27101, USA

    M. Cristina Noyola

  4. Wake Forest Baptist Health, 1 Medical Center Blvd, Winston Salem, NC, 27157, USA

    Julia Rushing & Erinn Allred

Authors
  1. Emily Boothe
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  2. Marta Olenderek
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  3. M. Cristina Noyola
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  4. Julia Rushing
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  5. Erinn Allred
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  6. Sebastian Kaplan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emily Boothe.

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Conflict of interest

Emily Boothe DO, Marta Olenderek MD, M. Cristina Noyola MS NCC LPC, Julia Rushing MS, Erinn Allred BS, and Sebastian Kaplan PhD declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Boothe, E., Olenderek, M., Noyola, M.C. et al. Psychosocial outcomes of group prenatal care. J Public Health (Berl.) 30, 1373–1380 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-020-01441-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10389-020-01441-6

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