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Choosing a care provider for pregnancy and childbirth is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. The birth of your baby will be a life-altering experience and who attends the birth is of the utmost importance.
Before you start shopping around, you need to decide what is most important to you in pregnancy and whether or not you have any risk factors which would decide who must see you.
When thinking about the choice of doctor or midwife, it will be your philosophy of pregnancy and childbirth that will determine the best route. For women who have a more medical view of having a baby, a doctor is likely to be the best choice. Either an obstetrician or a family practice doctor will be your choices. An obstetrician is one who is best suited to caring for women with high-risk pregnancies or those who will need a cesarean section for a medical reason. A family practice doctor sees an entire family in the medical practice and has a less medical approach to childbirth overall.
What the medical approach to pregnancy and childbirth consists of is believing that anything can go wrong at any moment and trying to be prepared for that at all times. While this approach has value in the health of mom and baby, it also tends to create more fears assuming that women cannot have babies without all the medical interventions available today like fetal monitoring and Pitocin inductions.
The midwifery model of care, either direct-entry midwife choosing homebirths of certified-nurse-midwives delivering in any setting, consists of a more passive approach and the belief that women's bodies know how to give birth and don't need medical technology's assistance. However, midwives do acknowledge the need for medical care if a problem arises.
So once you decide how you feel about pregnancy and birth, you can start looking around and interviewing potential care providers. If you are unsure, check into both doctors and midwives. And even then there can be inconistencies as all people are not created equal. One midwife is not like another one and the same holds true of doctors. So think carefully as you look for a practitioner and realize that your needs and desires may change through your pregnancy and switching to someone else can remain an option.
For instance, you may have not started the pregnancy with any high-risk conditions, like a multiple pregnancy, but realize that you have one and need to seek additional care. As always, consider your options and don't feel obligated to any one practitioner for feelings other than your knowledge that they will give you the care you want.
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