Group Prenatals

27 years ago when I was pregnant with my second child, I received midwifery care for a planned homebirth from June Whitson. June was working with Nancy Barnett at the time and the structure of the care was a group prenatal experience.

Pregnant women gathered every couple of weeks at the education room of the local free-standing childbirth resource center, The Birth Place. Each woman in their turn would see the midwife individually, have the usual assessments done, then return to the group for socializing and support.

What the experience gave me was a sense of community and normalcy. That I had common concerns and experiences with the other women. Especially important to my sense of well-being was being with other women planning homebirth and receiving midwifery care in a time and culture where it was not commonplace.

When I quit my career as an engineer in 2001 to return to school to study midwifery, I ultimately wanted to recreate the rich experience of group prenatals for my own clients.

And we are ready to launch, with a compilation of Birthing From Within style education and Centering Pregnancy, California Midwifery Service starts offering Village Prenatal Care. Start date, soon to be announced.

Centering Pregnancy is a robust model of group prenatal that takes all the best qualities of midwifery care and gathering in groups, facilitated by the care-provider (doctor, nurse or midwife) for larger institutions with the goal of replacing 15 minute individual appointments. Centering Pregnancy.

Birthing From Within is holistic parenting preparation that is honest with parents, considers cultural influences on birth, expands parents expectations, helps parents understand locus of control, and uses multi-sensory learning.

The goal of the offering is to further bring a sense of community, empowered experience, and enhance women and couples sense of well-being. All this serves in an indirect (nevertheless powerful) way, as well, to improve outcomes for birth and breastfeeding, and reduce risk of postpartum depression.

Check back here or our website for details.