Bun in the Oven? 7 Tips for Choosing an Obstetrician
Congratulations on your pregnancy! Now that you know you are pregnant, the first big step in your future son or daughter’s life is that you choose an obstetrician.
Choosing an obstetrician can seem like a big, overwhelming decision, but it doesn’t have to be. The most important thing is that you feel comfortable with the doctor that you choose.
If you are looking for some guidance in making this choice, you came to the right place. Read on to check out our best tips for choosing a doctor to guide you through your pregnancy and to deliver your baby when the time comes. If you keep all of these tips in mind, in the end, you’ll find that making this decision was actually not so difficult after all.
1) Ask for Recommendations
Chances are, you know other people who have had babies in recent years or even in the past few months. These people will be a great resource for you on millions of different topics, but the first way that they can help you is by offering obstetrician recommendations.
Your friends and family members know you well and they also got to know their obstetricians quite well during their pregnancies as well. They will know better than anyone whether a particular obstetrician will be a good fit for you or not. Listen to their suggestions and then move forward from there. Once they help you in that realm, they can begin to help you with more fun decisions, like helping you decide how to decorate the nursery.
2) Check Who Is in Your Network
Of course, if the obstetrician your friend or family member suggests is not in your insurance network, then their suggestions won’t be very helpful. Write down all the suggestions that you are offered, and then cross-reference with your insurance company’s website. Then you can move forward from there.
Also, don’t discount the other doctors listed. Your friends or family may have not come across them on their own, but one of them may be perfect for you. Start with the recommendations you’ve received, but then add a few others to your list and check them out, too.
3) Read Reviews
In this day and age, there are hundreds of reviews on every topic available to us online, and this includes reviews of obstetricians. Because this decision is so important, new mothers are often especially inclined to write and publish commentary about their feelings regarding their prenatal and delivery experience for other expectant moms to see. This means that you will have many reviews to read and that you should take full advantage of this amazing resource.
Reviews can tell you a lot about a doctor and can also help you realize what questions you should ask all doctors you end up meeting. The opinions of others can often be extremely helpful when it comes to choosing an obstetrician.
4) Meet With Your Favorites
Once you have narrowed your list to a handful of doctors, it’s time to make appointments to meet with each of them. This is a crucial step. Although experience and education are very important, the way that the doctor makes you feel when you are in his or her presence is perhaps the most important thing when making your choice, and that’s not something you can tell from reviews or even over the phone.
Bring along a list of questions to your obgyn appointment to guide the conversation. The doctor will likely have participated in hundreds of these sorts of meetings so he or she will lead, but you do want to make sure that the questions you need to be answered are answered, and arriving with a list and some paper to take notes will be ver
5) Consider Personalities
You probably have an idea in your mind of what the perfect obstetrician for you will be like. Are you looking for someone who is lighthearted and upbeat, or serious and all business? If you are someone who likes to joke around, then the latter might not be right for you. On the other hand, if you are nervous about your pregnancy and delivery, someone who is a bit more stoic might be more of what you are looking for.
Fortunatley, you will learn a lot about your potential doctor during your meeting. Again, a lot of your decision will come down to how each doctor makes you feel. That leads us to our next tip, below.
6) Trust Your Gut
Intuition is a powerful thing and at this point in your life, you have learned to listen to your heart and trust your gut. If you have narrowed the field down to just a few doctors, there is likely one that you simply feel more strongly about than the others. That’s the one you should choose. Trust yourself and your feelings and there’s a good chance the obstetrician that you end up choosing actually is the right one for you.
7) You Can Always Change Your Mind
Also remember that your final decision does not have to be final. Your pregnancy will last nine long months, and if at any point during that period you realize that you are not happy with your doctor, simply move down your list to your second choice.
Don’t feel bad about it. Again, this is a very important decision. The doctor you left will harbor no hard feelings against you; he or she is certainly busy with other patients and will move on to them, and you can move forward with a doctor that suits you better.
Choosing an Obstetrician Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult
All of the above tips will surely be helpful to you when it comes to choosing an obstetrician. Start with recommendations, move on to reviews, and in the end, choose the doctor with whom you feel most comfortable and excited. If you don’t like your first choice, make a change.
This will be the first decision for your baby, but it won’t be your last. Set the tone with this first decision and don’t stress too much. Once you make your choice, you can move on to everything else. Good luck, and have an amazing pregnancy.
If you are looking for more great stories about your health, check out the Health section of our site.
Ben Stern wrote this article on behalf of FreeUp. FreeUp is the fastest-growing freelance marketplace in the US. FreeUp only accepts the top 1% of freelance applicants. Click here to get access to the top freelancers in the world.
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