Questions to Ask Your Maternity Care Provider

• What are the chances you will be at my birth?
  (on call, rotation, etc.)

• Do you recommend that I take childbirth education classes? If not, why not? If so, what classes do you recommend?
• How do you feel about birth plans?
• What percentage of your clients are induced? What are the most common reasons for inducing among your clients?
• If my membranes rupture and contractions do not start right away, for what length of time are you comfortable with me laboring at home and waiting for labor to begin? 

• Are there care practices you consider to be standard or routine (e.g., continuous monitoring, rupturing membranes)?
• How often do you work with doulas? Do you perceive them as beneficial?  Harmful? Unnecessary? 

• How long are you comfortable letting labor proceed on its own, without the use of Pitocin?

• What position have women given birth in at the last 10 births you attended? 
• How long are you typically willing to let a woman push during Stage 2?
  
• What is your rate of delivery via C-section?
  
• What are the most frequent reasons you have for separating mother and baby after delivery?