Questions to ask your Maternity Provider

While packing to move this week I came across an old tablet of yellow, lined paper. Flipping through it before I tossed it out, I found a list of questions that I'd compiled over two years ago when I was preparing for the birth of my firstborn, Lloyd. Most of these questions are focused on striving for a natural, un-medicated birth in a hospital setting (which I achieved during my first pregnancy and am planning for for my second!) and are great to have on hand to ask your OB/Gyn or Midwife. Some of these questions are more appropriate when interviewing a potential doctor, while others might be better broached later in your doctor/patient relationship and even to both your doctor and the hospital you'll be laboring at when on your hospital visit. I leave it up to your discernment.

Rather than packing up the list in a box and moving it, to be found who knows when in the future, and rather than throwing it away outright, I decided to quickly copy the list on my blog (before throwing it away! :) in the hopes that it helps both me and my readers in the future!

I started with a statement:
(This is where you realize how much of a Type A personality I am at times)

My philosophy is that pregnancy and birth are normal, natural events and I want a natural, non-invasive pregnancy and birth, unless medically necessary. Keeping that in mind,

• What percentage of your patient's babies do you deliver yourself?
• How should I contact you in case of emergency?
• What about for just normal questions?
• Do you involve residents/interns/midwives in your practice? What role would they play in my care?
• What's your standard schedule for appointments?
• What percentage of your patients write birth plans? What advice do you have if we decide to write one?
• Do the majority of women you care for have medicated or non-medicated births?
• Do you encourage couples to attempt un-medicated deliveries?
• What methods of non-pharmacological pain relief do you tend to use/recommend most often?
• Do you routinely use electronic fetal monitoring during labor? Can we request intermittent? (Intermittent options include a hand-held doppler and a fetoscope)
• Would I be required to have an IV? If so, why?
  
• What percentage of women in your care receive epidurals?
• What percentage of women in your care receive episiotomies?
• Do you maintain a time limit for labor? If so, when does it start? (i.e. once the water breaks, once admitted to the hospital, etc.)
  
• Will I labor and deliver in the same room? Recover?
• Can I eat at will during labor?
• Will my baby be able to remain with me after the birth? Can my husband stay in my room?
• Do you provide breastfeeding support?
• How often will I see you post-partum?
• Do you have a 24-hour anesthesiologist and pediatric coverage should either be necessary?
• What is your nurse to patient ratios?
• Do you also employ CNM's? (Certified Nurse Midwives)
• Do you encourage / have experience with doulas during labor and birth? Do you have any to recommend?
  
• What are the routine policies for laboring women?
• How many people may be with me in a normal delivery?
• What are your routine newborn care policies? (This is important to know to decide if you want to decline any in advance, both to your doctor and in your birth plan, including routine Vitamin K shots, eye drops, Hepatitis B vaccinations, etc.)
  
• Can I request any special processes to occur after birth? (i.e. a LeBoyer bath for the newborn, saving the placenta, saving cord blood, etc.)
  
• Do you have showers/tubs/whirlpool baths available for laboring women? If not in every room, in how many? Does this service cost more? Can I request it upon admittance?
• How long do women usually stay after a vaginal birth? Are shorter or longer stays acceptable? How about for Cesarean section?
• Do I need a pediatrician lined up for my newborn prior to being released from the hospital? (This is a new one I added after what we encountered with the birth of our son Lloyd; they would not release him until they had a pediatrician listed on his record! Since he came on a Thursday and over two weeks early, we had to quickly find and get approval from a pediatrician in my town that our insurance would cover on Friday before their offices closed. Yikes! Luckily, I don't think they checked up on it to confirm with the pediatrician' office, so you might be able to wing it, but just wanted to warn you so that you are prepared for this possibility!)
  

Unfortunately, since this note is over two years old, I don't have any specific references to cite, other than that I culled most of these questions from various books and websites that focus on natural birth. Some may be found in the books linked on my LibraryThing list in the right column . . . .

Do you have any other suggested questions to add?