Need Help With Interview Questions For Midwife - Home Birth

[liltiger]

Hello! I am meeting with a midwife in a couple of days and would love some suggestions for interview questions. I am pregnant with my first and I know without a doubt that I want a home birth. I also plan on seeing my OB for testing and sonograms to cut costs because my insurance provider won't cover home birth.

What did/will you ask your midwife? What do you wish that you had asked but didn't?

All input is greatly appreciated, and no response is wrong or silly!

 

[liltiger]

Bump.

 

[Cjackord]

Important ones for me were regarding her skills for neonatal resuscitation, what equipment she brought, what the newborn testing she did involved and how she handled transfers (i.e. where I'd go and if she'd go with). It's also clearly good to know her success rates, how many births she has been the primary midwife, and her licensing status (available online for cnm and cpms in ca). You can ask for a list of referrals to check out previous clients and their experiences.

I also asked her protocol for going overdue, how she felt about co-care with an ob, and what she required of her clients (testing, exercises, health, etc). Another interesting question for me was what worried her the most going in to birth; no one is fearless and if they are saying nothing, you have to wonder about their experience and self-awareness. Something else I asked was what would make me too high risk for homebirth. Confident but cautious is important to me.

Good luck with your interviews! I think I interviewed about 5 before I started to really get the feel of it... Some only took 15 minutes or so while others (including the one I hired) took well over an hour.

 

[fides]

i would ask what the state laws are regarding home birth - as in, what she would be unable to do (like some won't let them deliver twins or a VBAC), or other parameters she has to work with (like what weeks are home births legal in CA, what happens if you go past 42 weeks, which complications can still have a home birth and which mean you automatically have to deliver at a hospital) - these sorts of things i found really, really hard to find online, so finding out at the beginning what few things can keep you from your home birth can be quite helpful.

other than that, i asked what kinds of things she's seen go wrong, how she treats 1st timer's differently (one midwife did vaginal checks hourly for 1st timers - NO!), how many people she will be bringing to the birth (some have several trainees and require them to come to all births - you may or may not be comfortable with that), and how many home births she had been the primary midwife for.

that's all i can think of for now - good luck! so exciting!

 

[liltiger]

Thank you everyone! My first interview went really well. We plan on doing one more with another midwife just so we are sure about our decision.