Abstract
OBJECTIVES: We evaluated the effectiveness of Moms2B, a community-based group pregnancy and parenting program, in an effort to assess whether the program improved pregnancy and infant outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective matched exposure cohort study comparing women exposed to the Moms2B program during pregnancy (two or more prenatal visits) who delivered a singleton live birth or stillbirth (≥ 20 weeks gestation) from 2011-2017 to a closely matched group of women not exposed to the program. Primary outcomes were preterm birth and low birth weight. Propensity score methods were used to provide strong control for confounders. RESULTS: The final analytic file comprised 675 exposed pregnancies and a propensity score-matched group of 1336 unexposed pregnancies. Most of the women were non-Hispanic Black. We found evidence of better outcomes among pregnancies exposed to Moms2B versus unexposed pregnancies, particularly for the primary outcome of low birth weight [9.45% versus 12.00%, respectively, risk difference (RD) = -2.55, 95% confidence interval (CI) = (-5.44, 0.34)]. Point estimates for all adverse pregnancy outcomes uniformly favored exposure to Moms2B. CONCLUSIONS FOR PRACTICE: Our findings suggest that participation in the Moms2B program improves pregnancy and infant outcomes. The program offers an innovative group model of pregnancy and parenting support for women, especially in non-Hispanic Black women with high-risk pregnancies.