Questions to ask a prospective obstetrician or midwife

·  Do you practice in a group, and will I have a choice of practitioners?  Do the others

    have similar philosophies on how to manage labor ?

·  Do you plan to be away for a period of time around my due date?

·  Do you deliver at home?  In a particular hospital? In a birth center?

·  Do you view birth as a natural physiological process, and what is your policy on routine

    Intervention?

·  Do you practice natural childbirth?  How many of your mothers deliver without

    medication?

·  Do you use a particular method of natural childbirth, for example Bradley, Lamaze or

    combination?

·  Do you or does someone you recommend teach childbirth education classes?  What do they

    cover?

·  Do you recommend amniocentesis or ultrasound?  Under what conditions?

·  Do you remain with a mother continuously during labor, or do you have a nurse or labor

    coach do so? 

·  Who can be present during labor and delivery-father, friends, siblings, birth coach?

·  Do you allow visitors not approved by the mother?  Will you allow a mother to restrict

    observers other than her family or friends?

·  Do you allow a mother to deliver in her own clothes?

·  Do you require any prep before birth, such as a shave or an enema?

·  What is your policy about fetal monitoring? Do you use fetoscope, Doptone, or a continuous

    external or  internal monitor?

·  Do you routinely use an IV?

·  What is the labor room like?  Do you allow or encourage a mother to walk around, move

    and change position in labor?  Eat or drink in labor?

·  Do you have time limits for the different stages of labor?

·  How many of your patients receive pitocin to simulate labor?

·  Do you rupture the membranes routinely?

·  If labor begins with the spontaneous rupture of membranes, do you set a time limit for

    when the baby must be born?  If so, how long is it?

·  How long do you allow a mother to be overdue before intervening?  Then what do you do?

·  What is your cesarean rate? Your group’s rate?  The hospital’s rate?

·  If a mother requires medication for pain, what type do you recommend?

·  If you work at a hospital, can a mother deliver in the labor room provided if it is an

    uncomplicated delivery? 

·  Do you allow the lights to be dim during an uncomplicated delivery if the mother requests

    it?

·  Do you allow the mother to view the birth in a mirror if she cannot see it in the position she

    is in ? Can her husband/friend videotape the birth?

·  What type of birth table or bed do you use?  What positions do you allow a mother to

    deliver in? Do you have a squatting bar available?

·  Do you encourage pushing in the second stage of labor?  What positions do you allow a

    mother to  push in?

·  How many patients do you deliver with forceps or a vacuum extractor?

·  Do you use massage oil, and /or heat on the perineum to avoid an episiotomy?  How often

    do you  use an episiotomy?

·  Do you allow the mother to touch the baby as it’s being delivered?

·  Do you allow the placenta to deliver naturally?

·  When do you cut the umbilical cord?

·  Do you encourage bonding?  Is the mother allowed to hold and nurse the baby 

    immediately?  For how long?

·  What medical procedures are routinely performed on the baby?

·  If the baby is healthy, can procedures like weighing be delayed?

·  If there is no history of gonorrhea, can the eye drops be refused?

·         How soon will you discharge a mother after delivery?

·  Does the hospital have complete rooming-in? If not, when must the baby be in the nursery?

·  What are the visiting hours for the father?

·  Can siblings visit?

·  What is your policy on circumcision?

·  How do you handle common complications of labor, such as unusual presentations or failure

    of labor to progress?

·  How do you handle breech deliveries?  Do you try to turn the baby manually?  Are you

    experienced at delivering breech babies vaginally?  Do you routinely do a cesarean for

    breeches?

·  Do you do vaginal births after cesarean (VBACs) ?

·  Who can be present at a cesarean?  Father or friend?

·  What anesthesia do you use for a cesarean?

·  Do you insist that the mother have preoperative medication that will make her drowsy

   during the cesarean?

·  Do you use a bikini skin incision and transverse uterine incision whenever possible for a

    Cesarean?

·  Can the mother view the cesarean delivery?  Can she have the screen down?  Can she move

    her arms about freely?

·  Do you encourage cesarean bonding?  Is the baby placed directly on the mother or given to

    the father?

·  Can the baby and father stay with the mother in the recovery room?

·  Is there full rooming-in for cesarean mothers?

·  What are the visiting hours for cesarean fathers?  Can siblings visit?