Empowering families, strengthening communities
The Impact of Centering in Our Community
CenteringPregnancy has been shown to reduce the rate of preterm and low birthweight babies. We are bringing that impact to Peoria.
Preterm Birth: The Stakes
Babies born preterm are at a higher risk of a variety of complications compared to term babies, including time in the NICU, developmental delays, asthma, and vision and hearing problems. Lowering the rate of preterm birth is an important way to improve health outcomes of whole communities. Additionally, the cost to the healthcare system in high-intensity care for preterm infants and long-term support for related health conditions is billions of dollars.
Nationally - The US ranks 54th among all countries for preterm births. Consistent with disparities seen in other areas of healthcare, Black women have 49% higher preterm birth rate than white women.
Disparities in preterm
birth rates in Peoria
| 7.2% | |
| Black mothers | White mothers |
Illinois - The state’s preterm birth rate is higher than the national average (10.2% compared to 9.8% nationally)
Locally - In Peoria County the preterm birth rate among black women is 86% higher than the rate among all other women.
The Benefits of Centering In Peoria
We started running Centering groups in Peoria in 2017, and recently we analyzed data from our first 5 years to study the impact Centering has had on our patients.
Preterm birth for Black patients dropped by 50% in CenteringPregnancy group - 7.1% compared to 14.5% Traditional Prenatal Care. This was especially true in the highest-risk zip codes
Low birth weight 12.5% CP, 15.7% TP
More Centering patients quit smoking than in traditional prenatal care
Increased vaccination rate for COVID and Tdap in Centering
For the full info, see here.
- 2017 and 2016 Premature Birth Report Card. March of Dimes Foundation. https://marchofdimes.org/reportcard
- Peoria County Maternal and Child Health Report 2016. Peoria City/County Health Department. May 2017.
- Premature Birth. Mayo Clinic. 2023. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/premature-birth/symptoms-causes/syc-20376730
- Why Centering? The Centering Healthcare Institute. 2023. https://centeringhealthcare.org/why-centering/
- Dupre A and Kaeb L. A Retrospective Study on the Impact of Centering Pregnancy Group Prenatal Care on High Risk Populations in Peoria, IL. Poster Presentation at the Society for Teachers of Family Medicine Annual Conference, 2023. Tampa, FL. May 2023.