Sample Questions for Your Physician or Midwife

The following are some commonly asked questions you may want to raise with your physician or midwife:

Once I think I am in labor:

• When do I call?
• Who do I call?
• Where do I call?
• If you are not available for my delivery, what are the names of the other physicians/midwives in your on-call group? Will I have a chance to meet them at a prenatal appointment or not until I am at the hospital?
• What will happen if I go to the hospital thinking I am in labor and it turns out to be a "false alarm?"

Once I am admitted:

• After the initial routine fetal monitoring, will I have to be continually monitored, or can I be monitored on and off?
• If I choose to have medication but do not want an epidural, what available medications do you recommend?

What is your opinion about:

• Activities or positions during labor such as walking, showering, bathing, rocking or lying on my side?
• Artificial rupture of membranes to speed up labor?
• Induction of labor?
• Positions for pushing and delivery including alternative birth positions like squatting?
• Length of pushing stage?
• Episiotomies, perineal massage and hot compress?
• The use of a vacuum or forceps for delivery?

I had a cesarean section in the past. Will I be able to deliver vaginally at this time?