Praise for Centering

Patients are share their experiences about CenteringPregnancy® Healthcare

The following testimonial is addressed to senior executives at the UCSF Medical Center: Ken Jones is chief operating officer; Mark Laret is the CEO and Shelia Antrum is Chief Nursing Officer and Executive Director for Patient Services. We make it available in its entirety with thanks to Ms. Aubuchon.
Ken, Mark and Shelia,

"I ran into Sharon Wiener, NP in the cafeteria today. She was my obstetrics provider during my pregnancy and birth of my son who just turned one. Sharon stopped me to say hello, ask after my husband by name and my son, even though I have not been in her care for over a year. I know that Sharon does this not because I am also a UCSF employee, but because we were able to build this amazing relationship during the Centering Program.

This was a reminder of what an amazing program Centering is and made me realize that I should take the time to thank you for supporting innovative, patient centered programs at UCSF. I have worked here as a manager for 7 years now and being pregnant gave me an opportunity to see our hospital from the patient’s perspective.

Before I decided to opt into the program and I read all the research material and learned of all the benefits which are quite impressive; decrease in c-sections, decrease in pre-term labor, increase in breast feeding. However, what I quickly came to understand how important the community of fellow mothers, fathers and one grandmother side by side of extremely engaged, educated and empathetic health care providers would be to me as a patient and a soon to be parent. In addition as a UCSF employee, I easily could see how much this program benefited the hospital by educating expectant parents regarding their upcoming hospital stay, relaying vital health care information and helping relay through action what a world class health center they had chosen.

During my hospital stay, I was amazed by how the time I spent in the Centering Program prepared me for most of the questions that came up and how grateful I and my husband had been through this program. Because of the wonderful opportunity I had to build a meaningful relationship with Sharon, when she checked on me it was like having a family friend at your side. | can safely say that my participation in the Centering Program greatly improved my hospital stay and opinion of our OB program. I always knew we had a world class ICN and NICU, but had no real knowledge about what a healthy mom and baby would expect from our hospital.

My husband and I came home with a healthy boy, confident we understood how to care for a newborn. Not only did we receive outstanding new born care information and dialogue from our Centering Program, but were directed to the other wonderful parenting classes UCSF offers. In addition Sharon started a distribution email list for the participants, about breastfeeding, post partum depression and getting sleep. These emails helped keep us in touch with each other and gave us an opportunity to email Sharon if we had a question. It was a great lifeline when you are up every two hours with a new baby. About a month after all the babies were born we had a reunion where everyone brought their babies. Sharon had us all share our birth stories and took time with each of us to see how we really were doing. Many of us still keep in touch and have play dates and keep connected on Facebook.

I just wanted to thank you for supporting this program."

Sincerely,
Tracy Aubuchon, December 6, 2010

"I joined centering in the summer of 2008. It was the best experience I could imagine going through during my pregnancy. I loved having access to medical personnel, talking about real time issues that I was experiencing and going through it with a group of people that have become life long friends. I not only strongly encourage everyone to do it; I highly recommend it to anyone in the Bay Area that tells me they are having a baby. I just became pregnant with #2 and am considering joining again! Everyone should experience this great program!" 
—Kate Reed, April 16, 2010

Facilitator: Sharon Wiener; Co-Facilitators: AnnMarie Cabonce and Crystal Feliciano

Additional testimonials that have been gathered from groups

"The best thing is building community with other new moms, spending the time to mentally prepare for birth and motherhood."

"A great way to meet other moms. The staff was above superb and the level of care was beyond our expectations."

"This group setting was incredibly helpful and I’d recommend this for all future parents."
CenteringPregnancy® Healthcare participants