Questions for potential midwife?

[bohemama]

So, dh and I have our first appointment with a midwife next week. What are the kinds of questions I should be going over with her?

Thanks!

[GabeMom]

I guess that depends on what you want. I'd picture the birth I want and ask her if she supports that type of birth- especially the things you want to avoid, etc.

If you are doing a home birth, I'd ask under what situations she would move you to a hospital. If you are doing a hospital birth, I'd ask if she has limits on pushing time and things like that. If there is a back-up OB, when would she call him/her.

Just make sure she is comfortable with what you want, so that if she says, we need to do "A' (which you had wanted to avoid), you can trust that it is really a necessity.

HTH!

[mom2mimi]

Sarah!!! This is so great we are preggo together and on this DDC too! So since we are using the same midwife and I've already used her here are some of the things I asked at my first appointment. I asked her to describe homebirth to me (I was all new to this at that point and hadn't even really decided it was what I wanted), we asked about her experience like how much she had and some of the emergencies she had to deal with, we asked what type of emergency equipment she carried with her and what instances a transfer would be necessary. We asked how many of her clients transferred and what were the outcomes like. (she said most of them transferred for exhaustion or pain meds) Hope that helps!!

[chalynm]

Honestly, I've never really "interviewed" a m/w or a doula. We never really had a choice. I mean, it was either THE m/w or an OB, and THE doula or nothing. I agree w/ the PPs, though. For me, it's always important that any medical profession, even our vet, support my wishes. Like for Abbey, the vet understands and supports our decision to never use extreme measures.

For a m/w, the decisions could have potentially deeper impact, obviously. I would say make sure that you're comfortable w/ her, that you can be completely honest w/ her, and that you feel she'll be completely honest w/ you. That way, if issues do come up in the future, you know she'll listen to your concerns and give you straight answers.