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March of Dimes Supportive Pregnancy Care® (SPC) framework, training, and resources offer an evidence-based approach to group prenatal care for pregnant people. Our flexible framework increases access to group prenatal care and helps achieve equity in birth outcomes. It brings together clinical care received in traditional prenatal care with a significant amount of prenatal education, all in a group setting where participants and their healthcare providers form a network of mutual support.
SPC is unique in that it addresses both social drivers of health and medical factors in a flexible framework for prenatal care that can be tailored to different patient populations. It strives to be culturally relevant to the variety of communities served.
The program offers:
- Prenatal care and health education – Providers and clinical support staff are trained on how to align their group prenatal care program with prenatal care guidelines established by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
- Social support – Expectant moms have more time with their care providers than they would during their standard individual prenatal checkups, which provides prenatal care education as well as vital social and emotional support from other group members.
- Positive experiences – Both pregnant women and healthcare providers report having positive experiences with the program.
Learn more about how SPC allows pregnant people to fully engage in their prenatal care and providers to implement customizable group prenatal care according to their organization's needs and capacity by clicking on the tabs below or contacting us at [email protected].
Our program includes everything you need to know to plan, implement, and sustain a successful Supportive Pregnancy Care program in your practice or system. Below is a breakdown of the different materials you'll have available to support you.
Supportive Pregnancy Care implementation and session guides. These documents provide information on the logistics of SPC and include:
- How to develop an implementation plan
- How to form groups
- Strategies to recruit patients and market your program
- Considerations for tracking results
- Program monitoring information
- How to bill for services
- Information on how to conduct a group session, including session guides (one for each topic to cover throughout your group sessions)
Online training videos. You'll get unlimited access for two years to our SPC online eLearning, available to an unlimited number of healthcare providers and staff, along with videos to help with implementation strategies.
Patient recruitment materials. Recruit pregnant individuals and market your program throughout the community by using the Supportive Pregnancy Care patient recruitment materials.
Evidence shows that prenatal care delivered in a group leads to better care with better outcomes. For example, when compared to women receiving traditional individual prenatal care, women who participate in group care:
- Have reduced risk for preterm birth and a baby with low birthweight or small for gestational age (Masters et al., 2024; Lewis et al., 2021; Ickovics, Earnshaw, Lewis, Kershaw, Magriples, Stasko et al., 2016)
- Have babies who spend fewer days in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) (Lewis et al., 2021; Ickovics, Kershaw, Westdahl, Magriples, Massey, Reynolds et al., 2007)
- Have higher breastfeeding initiation and duration (Ickovics et al., 2007)
- Demonstrate better prenatal knowledge, greater readiness for labor and birth, and higher satisfaction with their prenatal care services (ACOG, 2018; Ickovics et al., 2007)
- Reduced gestational weight gain, increased likelihood of exclusive breastfeeding, lower incidence of gestational diabetes, and lower incidence of macrosomia (Hawley et al., 2024)
- Are less likely to have a repeat pregnancy at six months postpartum, thus reducing the risk of a subsequent preterm birth (Kershaw, Magriples, Westdahl, Rising & Ickovics, 2009)
These improved health outcomes have the potential to save millions of dollars in US healthcare costs by reducing preterm birth rates and NICU admissions (Crockett, Heberlein, Glasscock, Covington-Kolb, Shea & Khan, 2017; Gareau, Lòpez-DeFede, Loudermilk, Cummings, Hardin, Picklesimer et al., 2016).
- Supportive Pregnancy Care is billed the same way as traditional individual prenatal care. In most states, Medicaid should cover SPC and other models of group prenatal care. Your state's Medicaid program, as well as private insurers, may also reimburse for other services provided during SPC, such as prenatal education, childbirth preparation, and breastfeeding education. Once established, the licensed obstetrical provider’s time is often reimbursable through Medicaid and other insurance. Please confirm with your Medicaid and other insurance points of contact.
- Ongoing costs include healthy snacks for each session and any consumable materials a site chooses to use (educational materials or activity materials).
- Assess your site’s readiness to implement Supportive Pregnancy Care
- Gain buy-in from leadership and staff
- Define anticipated outcomes
- Organize an implementation team, including key clinical, administrative, and marketing leaders
- Assess space and equipment
- Identify facilitators
- Train and prepare staff
- Schedule sessions
- Decide how to bill for services
While minimal equipment is required, it's a necessary consideration. You'll need a meeting space for at least 22 people, a privacy screen, an exam table, a scale, blood pressure monitors, and other items as described in our implementation guides.
Supportive Pregnancy Care is flexible—it allows you the ability to implement group prenatal care in a way that's best for your patient population and for your prenatal practice or health system.
Do you have questions about implementing the program? Contact our SPC team by emailing [email protected]