Centering Pregnancy

Midwifery is a profession that is constantly in motion. From January 2012 we have started to offer an alternative form of prenatal care to our clients, called “Centering Pregnancy”.

When taking part in Centering Pregnancy, the first midwifery appointment, and the last appointments after 36 weeks take place individually, just with the midwife. During the rest of the pregnancy the prenatal care will take place within a group of other pregnant women. Each group consist of 8-12 women. They will come together a number of times during a 2 hour meeting, and they will get to know eachother and can share experiences. The midwife will still see the women one on one during the meeting to observe the baby’s growth and heartrate. Based on previous American experience with Centering Pregnancy, we know that this form of prenatal care offers a couple of important health benefits and the group process as a whole turns out to be a very positive experience for the women that took part in it. We would like to observe if these benefits can also be gained by this form of prenatal care among women that receive their midwifery care in the Netherlands. At the moment, we run this program as a pilot, meaning that, for now, only a part of our clients take part in Centering Pregnancy (by choice). Below you will find a movieclip about Centering Pregnancy; parts of it were filmed within our practice.