Piloting CenteringParenting in Two Alberta Public Health Well-Child Clinics.

OBJECTIVES: To pilot a group health service delivery model, CenteringParenting, for new parents, to assess its feasibility and impact on maternal and infant outcomes.

DESIGN AND SAMPLE: Families attended six, 2-hr group sessions in their child's first year of life with three to seven other families. Health assessments, parent-led discussions, and vaccinations occurred within the group.

MEASURES: Demographic, breastfeeding, vaccination, maternal psychosocial health, parenting, and satisfaction data were collected and compared to a representative cohort.

RESULTS: Four groups ran in two clinics. Four to eight parent/infant dyads participated in each group, 24 total dyads. Most participating parents were mothers. Dyads in the group model received 12 hr of contact with Public Health over the year compared to 3 hr in the typical one-on-one model. Participants were younger, more likely to have lower levels of education, and lower household income than the comparison group. Parents reported improvements in parenting experiences following the program. At 4 months, all CenteringParenting babies were vaccinated compared to 95% of babies in the comparison group.

CONCLUSIONS: The pilot was successfully completed. Additional research is required to examine the effectiveness of CenteringParenting. Data collected provide insight into potential primary outcomes of interest and informs larger, rigorously designed longitudinal studies.