Interviewing a midwife is an important part of choosing the right care provider for your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum time. While much of it is just making sure it’s a good “fit,” interviewing midwives can also give you a great deal of insight into their background experience, value system, and approach to providing care. As well, the interview, and the process of setting up the interview, can give you information about the midwife’s professionalism, promptness, and practice approach. Are they well-prepared, respectful of your time, and organized?
Many new parents turn to lists created online, some of which have excellent questions, but many of which are outdated, redundant, or miss the mark altogether. So, of course, we decided to create an alternative list of questions that–we hope–will dig deeper than the usual questions you find with a quick Google search.
This week, we are discussing how these questions are meant to get to some deeper, nuanced information in our podcast, Mod Midwives.
We hope you’ll take a few minutes to listen, and, as promised, here are the ten questions:
- Tell me about your experience as a birth professional.
- What other skills/modalities/etc. do you bring to your practice?
- How did your personal experiences influence your philosophy and practice style?
- When might you recommend [a vaginal exam, an ultrasound, a consult with a physician, a transfer of care]?
- How do you stay up to date on new information/ practices/skills/emergency skills?
- Under what parameters is it considered safe to continue with my planned home birth?
- How would you handle common complications (such as malpositioning, suturing and jaundice)?
- Tell me about an emergency you’ve experienced and how you handled it.
- What is something you’ve changed about your practice?
- What is at the heart of midwifery for you?
We hope this podcast and these questions will help you on your journey to finding the right provider for you.