A Healthy Start!

Sitting in a circle of eight women with newborn babies, Isabel Smith introduces her bright-eyed son, Bruce (pictured on the right) This is a reunion for the women who bonded in CCI Health & Wellness Services’ CenteringPregnancy® program—an innovative group model of prenatal care.

Today, they meet each other’s babies and take turns sharing their birth stories in between bites of cake.

Isabel credits CCI’s CenteringPregnancy® with giving her supportive relationships and information to navigate pregnancy with a greater sense of confidence.

Reflecting on her experience, she says, “the Greenbelt health center and staff have been great.” The clinicians gave her a sense of ownership over her health by teaching her how to monitor her weight gain and the baby’s growth.

Isabel expresses gratitude for receiving medical information about topics commonly considered taboo within her cultural context. For example, the curriculum addresses potential postpartum depression. “You know, in the Latino community, you don’t talk about it—period,” she says.

According to Isabel, the community dynamic with the staff and other mothers is a primary benefit of CenteringPregnancy®: “It feels like we all became friends. We can talk about almost anything.”

Meanwhile, through CCI’s partnership with the Greater DC Diaper Bank, CenteringPregnancy® participants receive items to stock their nurseries. After attending a certain number of visits, they receive gifts of increasing value, like diapers, a diaper bag, crib, stroller, and car seat. These provide added incentive for the women to adhere to the recommended schedule of 10 prenatal visits, which gives their babies a greater chance of a healthy start to life.

Newborns in car seats provided via the Nursery Project through the Greater DC Diaper Bank