Moms-to-be take part in checkups, discussion sessions

Nurse-midwife Margie Rickell posed a question to the group of seven or eight women, seated in a circle, all pregnant and all due this month:

What kind of birth did they want?

The women, their belly baby bumps obvious, stood up and lined up along an imaginary spectrum. On one end were a few who wanted to try to have a totally natural birth, closer to the other end were those who would have the anesthesiologist's number on their phone's speed dial if they could.

Most clustered closer to the middle. The exercise started a discussion that exposed differences in philosophies of giving birth. In the end, they sort of settled on the notion that there was no right way or wrong way. For each woman, it was about having the type of birth she wanted and having a healthy baby.

What brought the women together at VCU Women's Health Center is a concept of prenatal care called CenteringPregnancy that seeks to empower women with knowledge and support to make those things happen.

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