Sandra and her baby are clients of the nonprofit health center, which is one of 10 beneficiaries of The Almanac Holiday Fund. Photo courtesy of Ravenswood Family Health Center.

Nonprofit health center offers pregnancy, parenting support

by Jessica Yee, director of development, planning & evaluation, and Valeria Sandoval, development associate at Ravenswood Family Health Center

This holiday season, Ravenswood Family Health Center is among the 10 local nonprofits that will benefit from donations to The Almanac's Holiday Fund. With a clinic in East Palo Alto, the center provides primary medical services and preventive health care to thousands.

Clients include mothers like Sandra and Johanna, who have had the opportunity to participate in both the CenteringPregnancy and the CenteringParenting programs offered by the center, and who say they have had wonderful experiences.

CenteringPregnancy is a group-care model that provides prenatal care to mothers, and CenteringParenting is a group-care model that provides pediatric care and parenting education throughout a child's first two years of life.

Although Johanna and Sandra were not first-time mothers, they still had many questions surrounding their pregnancies — from pregnancy myths and sleep safety, to eating habits. CenteringPregnancy's safe and comfortable community environment encouraged Sandra, Johanna, and other pregnant mothers to ask questions and learn from each other.

"[Although] I am a shy person, I love to hear others' opinions because I felt like there was so much to learn," Johanna says.

Sandra and Johanna have been able to continue sharing the journey of their babies' development with the same cohort of mothers through CenteringParenting, where they felt support from the other mothers and the Ravenswood clinic staff.

Both Johanna and Sandra recommend CenteringPregnancy and CenteringParenting because it has led them to positive results. "I benefited from being in both programs because it allowed me to receive continued care," Sandra says.