Assessing the CenteringPregnancy Planning to Parent Innovation

The two interventions will be 1) A viewing of "All Babies Cry" and a discussion of what it's like to be a new parent and 2) A "Planning to Parent" stress activity where parents discuss when they have felt overwhelmed, the coping mechanisms they used, and what can be done to manage those emotions in the future. The goal of this project is to gain insight from current participants in CenteringPregnancy group care around the ways that these interventions can better prepare parents to deal with the common stresses of parenthood.

The investigators will assess the curriculum by administering pre-test and post-test surveys to CenteringPregancy patients within 6 groups. Three of the groups will use the regular CenteringPregnancy curriculum and 3 of the groups will use the enhanced Centering Pregnancy curriculum. Participants will be recruited to CenteringPregnancy, and thus this study, as part of Boston Medical Center Obstetrics/Gynecology Associate's regular prenatal registration process and will be assigned to prenatal groups based on due date. The informed consent and pre-test will be administered to patients at Session 7 of the CenteringPregnancy curriculum and the post-test will be administered to patients at the postpartum visit. The control CenteringPregnancy groups will follow the regular curriculum as written in the CenteringPregnancy Facilitator's Guide. The experimental CenteringPregnancy groups will follow the regular CenteringPregnancy curriculum, with the addition of the "All Babies Cry" intervention during Session 7 (30-34 weeks) and the "Planning to Parent" stress intervention during Session 8 (32-36 weeks). There will be no individual interviews of participants. Following the postpartum survey, the Research Assistant will conduct electronic medical record chart reviews of the study participants.

The investigators propose to seek between 24 and 36 patients for the 3 control groups and between 24 and 36 patients for the 3 experimental groups, for a total of 48-72 subjects. Pre-test and post-test surveys will be collected by a member of the research team. Surveys will be kept in a locked desk and will later analyzed. The intent of this study is to gather important information on ways to improve group-based prenatal care from a patient-centered, trauma-informed perspective. This will ultimately help to improve both family and child well being and reduce the risk of child abuse, neglect and parental and toxic stress in the greater Boston area.