Centering Pregnancy, a group prenatal care model, is a promising intervention that challenges the standard model of one-on-one counseling of prenatal care. The model, is currently implemented at the UAMS, but as of yet to be adapted for Pacific Islanders. Centering Pregnancy replaces the individual prenatal care visit with a group model for obstetrically low-risk women. This model provides substantially more health promotion content than the traditional one-on-one prenatal care model. The intervention occurs from week 14 of pregnancy through birth, following the same same schedule as individual care. Group visits are 90-120 minutes each and follow a unique structured curriculum that incorporates standards of care. In the group setting, credentialed prenatal providers conduct a one-on-one assessment with each patient (30 min) and then facilitate group discussions on the topics of pregnancy, using adult learning principles (60-90 min).

Gestational weight gain will be measured by weight of first and last group prenatal visit along with information from the birth record data. We will use independent samples tests for proportions to compare treatment groups. We will also use generalized linear models to examine treatment group differences including important covariates such as income, education, age and marital status. Further, data from the proposed study will be use the data from the Kommour treatment group to estimate intraclass correlations as an indicator of clustering due to the nesting of participants within groups.

The research team will abstract medical record information about the mother and child.