Choice of Prenatal Providers & Support

Midwifery individual care: Midwives specialize in normal pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. They provide prenatal checkups, schedule tests and ultrasounds, listen to your concerns, and provide support and information.

Midwives at Boston Medical Center:

• Help you to give birth normally and the way you choose
• Recognize problems in pregnancy and labor and refer you to specialists when you need them
• Have healthy mothers and healthy babies. In 2012, women cared for by midwives at BMC had:
  • A cesarean birth rate of 13%
  • 50% of women with a previous cesarean tried to have a vaginal birth, 78% succeeded
  • 97% of babies did not need special care  (better than average for healthy pregnancies)
• Offer medication and epidurals if you want them
• Offer support and encouragement if you choose to give birth without pain medicine
• Work as a team with obstetricians, family medicine physicians and perinatologists
• Refer you to our Birth Sisters™ Program for extra community doula support.
• Give free pregnancy education and information through our “Hey Mama!” Patient Guides, Centering Pregnancy program and Childbirth Education program

Obstetrician individual care: Our general obstetricians (OBs) provide care throughout pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. OBs are medical doctors who are also specialists in pregnancy.

High-risk obstetrician: Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) specialists are obstetricians who are experts in high-risk pregnancy. They give you care if you have a serious medical problem such as diabetes, high blood pressure, HIV, or if you’ve had complications with a previous pregnancy

CenteringPregnancy®: Patients love doing Centering because they find it supportive, fun, and they feel more prepared for labor and birth.  You go through your prenatal care with a small group of other pregnant patients who are due around the same time as you. Patients say the group feels like a community of friends they can go to for support. You have a lot more time to ask questions and learn about topics that are important to you during your pregnancy. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now doing our Centering sessions through telehealth. You will have one-on-one appointments in the clinic with your midwife or doctor and will also have group telehealth sessions every 2 to 4 weeks.

In the group telehealth sessions, you have 1 to 2 hours to meet together with your midwife and group to learn about pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care. 

Research shows that people who do Centering are less likely to have a premature baby or a baby that is low birth weight. Ask your midwife of doctor if Centering is good option for you!

Birth Sisters™ are women from the communities around Boston who are specially trained to give you support during pregnancy, birth, and after the baby comes.

They speak your language, listen to your needs and help you talk with your providers about your questions or concerns. They will:

• Meet with you before the baby comes.
• Stay with you through labor and birth.
• Support you at home after the baby comes.
• Help you with breastfeeding.

To learn more, call: 617 414 5168

Project RESPECT (Recovery, Empowerment, Social Services, and Prenatal care, Education, Community and Treatment) is a high risk obstetrical and addiction recovery medical home at Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine. Established in 2006, the Project RESPECT clinic provides a unique service of comprehensive obstetric and substance use disorder treatment for pregnant patients and their newborns.

The Project RESPECT team members include four buprenorphine-waivered obstetric providers, an addiction certified psychiatrist with experience in perinatal mood, two RN care managers, a clinical social worker specializing in gender-specific care and trauma, and a child life-specialist to support attachment/attunement and bonding. The Project RESPECT team supports patients throughout their recovery journey during the entire first year postpartum.

We offer monitored, acute substance withdrawal treatment and induction of medications for opioid use disorder in pregnant patients seeking treatment. Intensive, individualized outpatient treatment plans are outlined for each patient based on the severity of their disease, their individual goals, and their recovery progress.  The outpatient medical home model provides on site, collaborative and multidisciplinary care for pregnant and post-partum patients in recovery.

The Project RESPECT clinical team collaborates and coordinates care with the inpatient Obstetric, Pediatric, Psychiatry, Social Work, Nursing and Lactation teams at Boston Medical Center to provide supportive and informed care. They also have developed strong partnerships n with multiple community-based organizations including local methadone clinics, residential addiction treatment centers, the Department of Public Health, and the Department of Children and Families.