Today, many mothers find a Doctor or Midwife for their pregnancy care through friends or word of mouth, and often enough women end up with negative feelings towards this provider, but continue under their care because of the trouble of changing providers during the middle of a pregnancy.
Well when I was looking for a provider for my second pregnancy, I wised up and made a list of questions to ask when “interviewing” a provider, which most people do not realize you can do. You do not have to automatically go with a specific provider because you have met with them.
The answers to your questions are key! After my first pregnancy, and the care I got, it was very important to me to not only have a provider who was like minded to the care I wanted, and expected, but also a provider that would do more than pop into a room for 5 minutes, listen to the babies heart beat, talk to me for a minute, and then scoot me out. I found during my interview process that midwives spent far more time, and also took the time to educate me, as well as answer any questions I had.
With that being said, here is a great way to help when choosing a health care provider.
- Find out where your provider stands on issues that are important to you.
- If having a Vaginal Birth after Cesarean is something that is important, find out if your provider does them, or if they have special rules or requirements of their patients that would like a VBAC.
- If having a natural unmediated birth is important to you, find out how your provider feels about that, as well as pain management.
- If having a doula present at your birth is important to you, find out your providers perspective on labor support such as doula’s.
- You get the hint…
- Interview the provider
- Ask questions that you feel are important to your care, and pregnancy.
- If you at any point feel rushed, or like this provider is frustrated by your questions, this is probably the treatment your pregnancy will get also.
- Some great sample questions
- How many birth’s have you attended?
- What is your cesarean section rate? (If they tell you they are not aware of this number, they are most likely not being honest, all providers are required to keep track of this, as well as report this annually.)
- How many Vaginal Birth After Cesarean Sections have you attended?
- How do you usually manage a postdate pregnancy or suspected Cephalopelvic Disproportion?
- How long do you “allow” women to labor without intervention?
- How many inductions do you do yearly?
- Are inductions routine for your practice?
- What is a reason you would induce a pregnancy?
- What percent of your patients receive and epidural or some kind of pain medication?
- What is your episiotomy rate?
- How do you feel about allowing the vagina to rip instead of cutting an episiotomy?
- What percent of your patients births do you attend?
- What is the on call schedule for your practice?
- How many other providers are in your practice?
- How many people can I have in the room with me when I deliver?
- What is your usual recommendation for IVs, Pitocin, prostaglandin gel, amniotomy, epidurals, confinement to bed, EFM (and so on)?
- What is your appointment schedule?
- What kind of positions will you allow me to give birth in?
- What hospitals do you have privileges at?
- What books to you recommend I read?
- What would you suggest for a breech baby?
These are all very important questions when working on finding a provider that is right for you. Remember also, in the state of Connecticut there are other options besides birthing in a hospital with an OB/GYN. If hospital birth is the route you would like to take, there are many Certified Nurse Midwives that attend births in hospitals across the state. If an out of hospital birth center is what interests you the most, there is one located in Danbury, directly across the street from Danbury Hospital. There is also a birth center located inside the hospital in Waterbury.
Then there is always the option of birthing at home. There are Certified Practicing Midwives that practice across the state, as well as Certified Nurse Midwives that do attend home births.
Good luck on your journey!
