Sara Pratt, Helen Powell, and Rory Engel are about ready to pop. They’ve been meeting at Capital Region Midwifery in Troy. This is their ninth session.
They’re working with licensed midwife Maureen Murphy. Murphy is using a new initiative called the Centering Pregnancy Program to bring a group of expecting mothers together.
The goal is to educate, support, and provide care.
First, the mothers are individually taken into a private room to check their baby’s heartbeat. Powell will be induced next week to give birth to a boy.
While here, the patient discusses concerns with Murphy.
Murphy says this program allows women to get more time with their provider and the chance to form a community with other mothers.
“Typically, people come in, they see a nurse, and they get their vital signs taken, and then they see their provider for anywhere between five and 10 minutes,” Murphy said. “Centering is different, because we really do have time to speak with everybody, and. So, there's a lot more education and there's a lot more support that happens. So, what ends up happening is people spend 10 times more time with their provider, with Centering Pregnancy, than the one-on-one care that we're used to.”
Powell says she used it for all three of her pregnancies.
“For my first pregnancy, I was seeing like a regular OB doctor and I wasn't really comfortable with the experience,” Powell said. “I kind of just based it off of where we live and the location it being, you know, super easy. So, I ended up leaving that practice and just kind of coming here. And, you know, getting other moms’ advice of, like, ‘Oh, where do you go? Who do you see?’ And I liked it since the first pregnancy, and I continue, and we'll use these guys for just regular gynecological care. And, you know, after pregnancy. And so, love my experience.”
Burdett Birth Center is housed within St. Peter’s and is where mothers using midwives through the hospital will likely give birth. Last year, it was set to close, citing financial pressure and lack of use. Hospital officials held public comment sessions to listen to resident concerns amid many protests against the closure. Powell says she was worried about the loss of community she had formed with everyone from the front desk staff to the doctors who delivered her children. The state eventually stepped in and over the next five years, $1 million will be directed annually to the center to support maternity care.
Supporters lauded the personalized care the birthing center is able to provide mothers in low-risk pregnancies. Murphy says women who use midwifery services tend to have healthier families. She says this is, in part, because of the preventative care taught to mothers during their pregnancy.
Engel, who is 32, says while planning for her first child, she wanted a more personal approach to her care.
“I don't really love the doctors. I don't really go to the doctors often. I just wanted to feel comfortable going into this chapter.”
Pratt agrees, saying pursing an unmedicated, natural birth comfortably was important to her and her family.
“All of the midwives will always ask, even before they do something as simple as placing a hand on your belly, or, you know, checking a measurement, they'll say, ‘Is it OK if I touch you?’ And it's like that informed consent and respect for the woman you know, not just a patient or another number, another person going through a medical system, but you know, a human being,” Pratt said. “It really is night and day.”
Following a check-up, the women gather in a nearby room. They talk about fears and hopes, and learn about the final weeks of pregnancy and what labor might be like. They play a true/false game of do’s and don’ts, discuss when to call the hospital, and what they expect to change post-partum.
Following the birth of all of the babies, the women will get together to socialize and bond with each other and their new kids.
