Finding Quality Prenatal Care

• Quality care is...prenatal visits that allow enough time to ask questions, understand care options, and share concerns. Midwives generally allot one hour per visit.

• Quality care is...your provider taking the time to explain options and alternatives in prenatal care, labor, and birth.

• Quality care is...the use of technology only when the benefits outweigh the risks.

• Quality care is...a provider who values normal physiological birth and understands that healthy women can give birth without interference, most of the time.

• Quality care is...knowing who will attend your birth. Ideally your care provider follows you from prenatal care to the actual birth to postpartum. Ask your doctor or midwife how likely it is they will attend your labor and birth.

• Quality care is... comprehensive postpartum follow ups. Seek a care provider that offers personalized postpartum care that extends beyond the first few days after your birth.

How Can I find Quality Care?

• Research the statistics of your intended place of birth: Epidural, Induction & Cesarean Rates.

• Know that your first birth is the most important time to reduce your risk of having a Cesarean Section.

• Learn more about the safety of home birth.

• Interview a homebirth midwife.

• Hire a doula if you give birth in the hospital.