It is VITAL to make sure the OBGYN or Midwife you are hiring in Boca Raton to care for you and your unborn baby during your pregnancy as well as be the most supportive and experienced medical care provider for you during your birth is the right OBGYN or Midwife for you, it is VITAL to ask questions that are important to you during your first consultation or if you already hired the provider, questions to ask during your first, second and third trimester of pregnancy.
Below you'll find a list of questions to ask an OBGYN or Midwife in Boca Raton during your prenatal visits (if you have already hired them) or at your very first visit or consultation appointment if you are still researching who the best OBGYNS are in Boca Raton and interviewing them.
You'll also find a list of questions to ask your OBGYN in Boca Raton when you're in your third trimester.
You can print this list by going to File > Print
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR BOCA RATON OBGYN OR MIDWIFE
INITIAL CONSULTATIONS / INTERVIEWS
1. To Yourself: Do you feel supported and respected by this OBGYN during your initial visit / interview? Does this OBGYN listen and answer your questions patiently or are is this OBGYN or Midwife suggesting holding off on your questions until you’re officially under their care or until you are closer to giving birth?
2. Is this OBGYN open to birth plans? What if instead of calling it a “Birth Plan” you have a birth preferences list?
3. What hospitals does this OBGYN have privileges to deliver at? And What is their opinion of the various labor and delivery units if the doctor has privileges are more than one hospital?
4. How many vaginal checks does the OBGYN do during pregnancy and during labor? Should I get routine vaginal checks starting at 37 weeks of my pregnancy, how necessary are vaginal checks or can I opt out? What are the benefits/downsides and when do I need to have them done?
5. Under what circumstances during pregnancy would the OBGYN recommend an induction? How can an induction affect the outcome of my birth (vaginal / cesarean) What type of inductions do you do? (foley balloon, pitocin, cytotech, cervidil) you want to know which induction method the OBGYN uses most often and what they recommend and what the doctor sees as potential downsides of certain induction methods. What percentage of your patients does this doctor induce on or before their due date?
6. What is the OBGYNs' opinion of Birth Doulas? What percentage of the doctor’s patients use a doula? What doulas does the OBGYN recommend?
7. Under what circumstances during labor would you recommend to administer medications such as cervidil or pitocin?
8. How do you handle past due dates? (Over 40 weeks, over 41 weeks)
9. What is your percentage of your patients get an epidural, What percentage have vaginal births? / percentage of c-sections? Under what circumstances during pregnancy would you recommend a scheduled cesarean?
10. Who is your backup Midwife or OBGYN? Who is the OBGYN covering doctor? How is he/she during labor? When can I meet them? What is your opinion of the Hospitalists at the hospital you have privileges at (if the hospital you are choosing for your birth uses Hospitalists) and under what circumstances would I be delivered by one of the Hospitalists instead of you?
11. How do you handle delayed cord clamping? How long do you delay for? Under 1 minute or over 1 minute? Do you do cord blood banking AND delayed cord clamping?
12. Are you planning any vacations, trips, major surgeries, or other events 3-4 weeks before my due date, or up to 2 weeks after my due date that would interfere with your attendance at the birth? If after we are working together you end up scheduling a vacation or trip around my due date, can I request to be notified?
13. What positions do you feel comfortable delivering in? (on back, squatting (using a squat bar), on all fours (knees and elbows)?
14. Is your practice VBAC friendly? (Vaginal Birth after a C-section) If not, please give your medically backed reasons why.
15. What is your policy on breech pregnancies (babies who are not head down in the third trimester)? Do you support doing a version at the hospital and then continuing the pregnancy in hopes of a vaginal delivery? If not, please give your medically backed reasons why.
Questions to ask when you are approaching the third trimester of pregnancy
1. What are your feelings on the dad catching the baby, or me catching my own baby? Will you deliver the baby? Or will you assist me in birthing him/her/them?
2. How do you feel about hypnobirthing? Are you experienced with delivering babies for moms who are using hypnobirthing?
3. How does it work if I am GBS positive - how often do you administer antibiotics during labor and do you do specific procedures with the baby after birth
3b. Are there other options to drinking the orange drink for the gestational diabetes test? Such as eating jelly beans or drinking orange juice?
4. Do you do IV/Heplock? Are you ok with laboring tubs, (or hydrotherapy by standing in the hospital shower), eating small snacks during labor? What if the hospital I am delivering at does not have a good record of supporting laboring tubs or other birth preferences of mine, will you be supportive of me changing to another birthing facility?
5. What are the pros and cons of vitamin K shot and eye ointment
6. Do you offer or suggest taking specific childbirth preparation courses? What classes do you recommend?
7. During labor, how close together should my contractions be before I head to the hospital?
8. If my water breaks before labor (contractions) even begins, how long can I labor at home for before I am required to go to the hospital?
9. What happens in the event of pre-term labor before 38 weeks?
10. Under what circumstances, if any, do you perform episiotomies? How many episiotomies have you performed in the last 2 years? Do you recommend doing perineum massages throughout pregnancy leading up to birth?
11. How early do you arrive to the hospital (when I am 9 or 10cm or earlier if I request?) How long will you and/or your support team stay with mom and baby after the birth?
12. Is breastfeeding support offered by your practice or do I need to rely solely on the nurses / lactation consultant at the hospital?
13. Do you deliver breech if my baby rotates into breech position during the end stages of active labor during transition? [Most babies will move into delivery position a few weeks prior to birth, with the head moving closer to the birth canal. When this fails to happen, the baby's buttocks and/or feet will be positioned to be delivered first. This is referred to as “breech presentation.”] Do you recommend trying to turn the baby if the baby is in breech position during labor or in the last few weeks of pregnancy or do you recommend a cesarean birth?
