Who you will actually see
Ask early, because it changes what your birth looks like.
In most American practices you will not be delivered by the person you see in the office. You will be delivered by whoever is on call. In a group of eight, the chance that any particular one of them is present is small.
Worth establishing at the first visit:
- How many clinicians are in the call group, and will you meet them all?
- Are midwives part of the practice, and in what circumstances would you see one?
- Which hospital, and is there more than one option?
- Does the same practice cover nights and weekends, or does another group?
Continuous one-to-one support during labor, from any person, is one of the few interventions that improves nearly every outcome measured. Across 26 trials and 15,858 women it reduced cesarean delivery, reduced instrumental delivery, reduced use of pain medicine and reduced the chance of rating the birth negatively.
Where this comes from:
197. Bohren MA, Hofmeyr GJ, Sakala C, Fukuzawa RK, Cuthbert A. Continuous support for women during childbirth. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2017;7:CD003766.
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More from Before and at the start
This page is educational. It supports the conversation with your own clinicians. It is not consent to any treatment, and it cannot assess you. If you are worried about a symptom now, see urgent warning signs.