How did you choose a Dr. / Midwife / etc?

[countthestars]

The Dr's office that I currently go to is a Family Medical + Maternity center and does prenatal and maternity care as well as delivery. I've only been there one year (since I moved to the area) and have seen a Family Nurse Practitioner. There is a Midwife within the practice who I have not met.

Did you just stay with the doctor you already had? Did you find a hospital that you wanted to deliver in first and then find a Dr that delivers there? When do we have to figure this all out?

Thanks!

[Ashley&Scott]

I asked for recommendations on my local board when I moved to this area. We didn't start TTC for a few more years so I was already a patient.

[ijack]

I had a dr I had been seeing for quite a few years and who helped me get pg. Once I was pg, I started seeing a midwife in the same practice, because I liked the idea of a midwife and they were easier to schedule with. When I was admitted to the hospital at 23w I automatically became a patient of the dr on call, but saw every doctor during my stay. My original dr and new dr ended up being the ones on call the day I delivered and my new dr ended up delivering E. She was beyond amazing (and had been the whole hospital stay) so I just stayed with her.
So basically it was really random. But yes, I had a practice I liked and they delivered at the hospital I wanted

[satama]

I had a gyn, but she was near retirement and had stopped delivering babies. She asked where I wanted to deliver and reccomended a doctor to me. I went and liked it so I stayed with that doctor. If I had not been comfortable there, I had a midwife practice in mind to look into next. I ended up being high risk, so I am glad I stayed with that practice anyway because my doctor is great.

[Deleted]

At first I just went with my regular OBGYN. When we decided on a home birth I went through the state registry of motives in our area. Through google I narrowed it down to about four. Two were booked, e interviewed the other two.

[ssmjlm]

I asked a friend who had just had a baby. It was also important to me that the office be affiliated with one local hospital. Our other local hospital is religious and I don't agree with some of their policies.

[h]

I got a rec from a friend for an ob-gyn a couple years before we tried to conceive after I decided to leave my previous one. I liked her and stuck with her once I got pregnant.

[gibbinator]

I didn't really have much choice.
The closest hospital to us that does deliveries is 50mins drive and it's a matter of who's on call that particularly time.

For prenatal appts these same ob's would take turns coming down to a local hospital on Thursdays, so again it was just luck who you saw. Up until 3rd tri though I just saw my family doctor.

Midwifery is in an odd state of not-quite legal in my area right now, so it wasn't an option.

[Deleted]

I stuck with my family doctor. She talked to me early about whether I'd want to see an OB and I saw no real advantage to that. Getting in with a midwife takes an act of God here (they're in really high demand) and I had no idea when I got pregnant that I'd end up being a natural-birthing dirty hippie earth momma, so I didn't try.

All births happen at the same hospital in my city, so that didn't enter into it. I would have switched doctors if I got a bad vibe off mine, but she seemed supportive of my choices and I had a great birth with her. I hope she can attend my next one (the doctor I had was actually covering for my usual that went out on mat leave early in my pregnancy).

[Willis Jackson]

For DS, I knew that I wanted to deliver at a freestanding birth center so I picked the one that was most convenient. They assigned me a midwife and I loved her so it was done.

With DD, we had moved to a place w/o freestanding birth centers so I just randomly picked a convenient OB out of the insurance listings and ending up loving her, too.

Maybe I just love everyone, lol.

[UnderProtest]

He was my gyn and the RE I was going to said that practice was good. I liked him, he practiced at the hospital with the higher level nicu in my city and my neighbor (very blunt guy, OB/gyn resident at that hospital) said he was gentle. I saw all the OB's for my appointments but scheduled my c section with my primary doctor. I felt comfortable with my decision and it ended up that the re nurse who got pg with twins also used him, so I felt even better about my decision.

[cjeanette]

I went with the OB who everyone in my family sees. He delivered me. I have known hin forever. The trust was already there so I saw no reason to change.

[curbsideprophet]

The office I go to has a team of OBGYNs and a team of midwives. So I do not really have one primary provider.
Prior to being pregnant I had only seen OBGYNs or a PA.

When I got pregnant they made my first appt with a midwife. I was told I could choose between being a midwife patient or a OB patient. If I went the midwife route and at some point the pregnancy became high risk, I would need to switch to being an OB patient. I really had not thought about it. After doing some research, being a midwife patient was the obvious choice for me. I think I had to tell by 20 or 24 weeks which option I wanted. They then tried to schedule at least one appt with with every midwife prior to delivery since you did not know who was going to be at the hospital when you go into labor. I did have the option of scheduling appts with all OBs early on if I wanted to, just in case or to help me decice, but I chose not to do that.

[cherry1111]

I hated the way I was treated at my OBGYN after my first m/c so I started googling the city I was looking in and read reviews. There were tons of reviews out there and the Dr I ended up with had a few write ups about how caring and empathetic she had been when people had experienced a loss with her. That plus the optimal location sold me.

[whitepicketfence]

I just kept the same doctor that I had always had. With DD1, their practice didn't deliver at the hospital that I would have preferred but I liked my OB enough that it didn't matter. I got lucky that by the time I was pregnant with DD2, the practice had switched which hospital they were affiliated with and I got to delivery at my first choice hospital.