Hillsboro, Ore.—Virginia Garcia’s Hillsboro Clinic is now certified as a provider of a nationally recognized, highly effective and widely popular method of group prenatal care known as CenteringPregnancy. Virginia Garcia received site approval from the Centering Healthcare Institute (CHI) confirming that the Hillsboro Clinic has met the standards to be certified.
CenteringPregnancy, offered at the Virginia Garcia Hillsboro Clinic since 2010, is a groundbreaking model of group-based prenatal care that integrates health assessment, education and group support into a unified program. This evidence-based model, which has been shown to improve birth outcomes, replaces routine individual visits for women during pregnancy.
Centering Pregnancy brings together women who are at the same stage of pregnancy for their prenatal visits. These women still have an individual check-up with their clinician, but they take their own blood pressure, weigh themselves, and set personal health goals. The group then participates in a facilitated discussion around important health topics. The group setting provides time for women to explore the issues that impact the health of themselves and their babies and families. Women learn together, feel better prepared for labor, birth and infant care, make friendships and report overall greater satisfaction, according to CHI.
According to Monica Arce, CNM and Lead Clinician at Virginia Garcia’s Hillsboro Clinic, “CenteringPregnancy works because it creates a nurturing and satisfying experience for both the women and the providers. We can take time answering questions and delving into the concerns that all of the participants share. These women are empowered to actively participate in their care.”
Virginia Garcia’s staff in the Centering program are all trained and certified to facilitate the CenteringPregnancy sessions and participants report that they are highly satisfied with the experience they are receiving. The sessions take the place of all of their prenatal care, but also include topics like breast feeding, childbirth preparation, contraception, nutrition, healthy habits, family dynamics, domestic violence, and postpartum and newborn care. By achieving site approval, Virginia Garcia demonstrates a commitment to the Centering model and assures quality to all participants.
“Virginia Garcia providers deliver over 300 babies each year, and now our patients have the option of participating in a program that has been shown to improve women’s satisfaction with their care.
Centering Pregnancy groups empower women and families to make positive changes in their health behaviors and prevent issues like preterm birth, decrease rates of low birth weight babies and increase breast feeding rates,” says Virginia Garcia Assistant Medical Director Christian Hill, MD. “It is tremendous that we can offer this model of care for our patients, many of whom would otherwise not be equipped with the resources to have such high quality support during or after their pregnancy.”
“The program is a breath of fresh air after years of rushing through an appointment with expectant mothers,” states Arce, who facilitates sessions in Spanish.
Since 2013, funding for CenteringPregnancy has been made possible by support from the March of Dimes, the City of Hillsboro, Spirit Mountain Community Fund, and PacificSource Foundation for Health Improvement.
Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center provides high quality, comprehensive and culturally appropriate primary health care with a special emphasis on those with barriers to receiving health care. Since its founding 39 years ago, Virginia Garcia has grown from a grassroots volunteer-run clinic into a full service health care home serving Washington and Yamhill Counties. Today, Virginia Garcia employs over 450 people, has a budget of more than $40 million, and serves nearly 38,000 patients at five primary care clinics, five dental clinics, four school-based health centers and a mobile outreach clinic. Visit www.virginiagarcia.org for more information on the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center.
For more information Olivia MacKenzie at [email protected] or 503-352-8612
