How to find your birth care provider
What should I be looking for?
Especially if this is your first baby, it's hard to know what you don't know. But this post should give you some general guidelines. Because we are patient advocates (birth doulas), we've based this overview on the principles of bodily autonomy and patient satisfaction.
Everyone deserves a healthy, safe birth. That's a given.
But you deserve a voice in how that happens. Why not simply leave it to the experts? Of course it makes sense to take medical advice from your care provider. However, when experiencing something as deeply personal as childbirth, it's important to get to know your own unique needs so that you can express them. This will help you ultimately become a self-assured and confident parent. What better time to start honing those skills than during birth preparation?
In the United States, the Cesarean rate is 33% on average. That's way too high, says the World Health Organization. What causes this rate to be so high? Hint: It's not all high-risk scenarios.
Of course there are times when Cesareans are necessary. We don't want to minimize that. However, just knowing that a low-risk pregnant person's risk of having a major abdominal surgery, just by walking into a hospital, is 1 in 3, it may help put some things in perspective.
The overuse of interventions in maternity care is one key reason that so many Cesareans are performed. So you'll want to consider enrolling in a comprehensive childbirth education course to become fully informed about your role in the decision making process. HelloBirth hypnobirthing classes are a great option, because you'll learn how to create solid birth preferences to guide you, and you'll have solid tools to use to help you through the birthing process.
Why are interventions overused?
There are a variety of reasons. One of them is the litigious nature of our society. Providers are often up against a wall to intervene less they be accused of doing nothing if there are complications. But unfortunately there can be consequences. Complications can and do occur as a result of the side effects of unnecessary interventions.
How do I know which interventions, if any, are right for me?
The most straightforward way to decide is to enlist the help of a birth care provider you fully trust.
Here are a few questions you can ask your provider that will help you discover if they're a good fit for your birthing care needs.
- What is the Cesarean rate within your practice? (15% to 20% is generally ideal, including high-risk care, lower than 15% if their patient population is low-risk)
- What options do you provide that can help me lessen the use of medication or other interventions that I'd prefer not to have? Examples: a midwifery program, birthing or labor tubs for hydrotherapy, wireless fetal monitoring to encourage free movement, nurses with special training, or doula recommendations?
We hope this post is helpful in getting you started on your search for a birth care provider. Finding the right one will go a long way in helping you to have a positive birth experience.