Homebirth consultation

[DomerJen]

I have my first hb consult w/ a midwife next friday. I have "Gentle Birth Choices" and "The Thinking Woman's Guide" which I think both have a list of stuff to ask, but does anyone have tips to share w/ things I should ask about at the consultation?

[She2dancer]

:

[dachshund mom]

I read "Having your baby with a nurse midwife" and it was really useful. I'm leaning toward HB, but haven't ruled out a bc or mw at hospital.

This is my incomplete list of questions. I'm interested to see what others come up with!

Costs, insurance
prenatal visit schedule, length of visits, where are appts
use of ultrasound/doppler
usual prenatal tests
transfer to an OB- why? who?
hospital transfer - where, dr, % of first timers who transfer, additional costs
any classes offered
equipment needs at home
liklihood of getting a back up mw
who will be there (assistant?)

[vanessab23]

How about....

use of fetoscope in lieu of doppler
IMHO, as a midwife who was trained on both but relied 99% on fetoscope prenatally, if your midwife can neither find her fetoscope nor get heart tones with it at a reasonable stage (2nd trimester), find another midwife. What happens if the doppler dies in labor/at a pivetol moment? Can she use non-technological means to assess the baby's health?

re: back up midwife-- ask to meet that person, as well as her assistant and any students that will attend (which you should be able to decline having-- it's your birth)

does she rent Aqua Doulas?

is she lactation trained?

how many clients does she take per month, on average?

does she have any trips/vacation planned?

what happens if you transfer to the hospital? does she stay with you? how does her role change? (she should ABSOLUTELY stay with you, and become your "doula" for the duration of your labor. If she needs to leave you, it better be for a major family emergency, or because she can no longer stand she's so tired, but in those cases she needs to send her back up.)

what happens to your postpartum appts with her if you deliver in the hospital?

Is she comfortable checking dilation in crazy positions?

(Just an added note, many of what I've shared here are things I wish I had hammered out before I chose my mw-- you would cry if you heard some of the things she pulled during my labor/birth-- hoping for a MUCH better experience this time!)

[ilovejeff]

Subbing in preparation for my MW visit in a couple weeks.

[DomerJen]

Ok, I checked a ton of threads about this and just started copying/pasting, so here is the link to the google doc. I'm sure there is TONS of repition, but it should get us started.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...UfNzPfp-bWwnJw