288. The Conversations Every Expecting Mom Needs to Have Before Labor Starts

So today I'm walking you through different questions to ask before you go into labor, and we're breaking it down into questions for your provider, questions for your doula, questions for your partner, questions for other people that are going to be supporting you in your birth space, and and also questions for yourself.

So this is really important to really asking yourself those hard questions and either just thinking about it, having an open discussion, or also what really helps too is journaling.

So those questions for yourself, journaling can be really helpful when it If you can, grab a notebook, maybe start to jot these things down or just have, you know, your partner or your birth team listen to this episode as well.

And just start thinking about some of these questions because it's so important to prepare.

And when we're preparing, when we're calm and when we're having the time and the ability to have these conversations, it's so much better.

So starting off with your provider, your provider really does play a major role in your birth experience, who you're choosing to have for your provider, whether it's a whole practice or a single provider.

It's important to have some of these conversations beforehand and to ask these questions before before you're birthing your baby.

This might even be some good questions to ask when you're looking for a provider and some questions to ask when you are just getting started and initiating care with a provider.

But overall, I believe all these conversations, all these questions should happen well before labor.

Because it's important to see how they respond, what their reaction is, what their response is, and how that aligns with how you want to birth.

And so you're not surprised when something comes up and they say, this is policy, this is practice, this is standard care.

You're well aware of what this looks like and what might happen if some of these scenarios come up.

Just kind of listing them off, I have eight different questions, and I'm sure that these questions will also lead to other various questions and conversations that you might have.

So generally just starting off, asking them, what's your philosophy around birth? You know, seeing if they're more hands-on, hands-off, what their view of birth is, what their background is, how they view physiological birth, what...

they view as medical versus non-medical and how they see birth themselves.

Do they have any children themselves? Are they aware of different births outside of practicing? Just getting an idea of how long they've been doing this, why they became an OB or a midwife or whatever it might be.

Just In general, what is their philosophy around birth? Question number two is what is your induction rate and what is your C-section rate? So really understanding what these two different rates are too and just getting a feel for what their rates are like.

Is it high? Do they have a very high induction rate? How often are they recommending that moms get induced? What weak gestation are they having moms get induced? What does that look like? What's their cesarean rate? Are these planned cesareans? Are these emergency cesareans? What is their rates looking like? And really not to judge, but to just understand what their practice patterns are, understand what that looks like, and get a feel for what their opinion is when it comes to induction and cesareans as well, and then seeing if that aligns with you and seeing if that sounds good, if that is what your plan is, and if there leaves any room for how you ultimately see your birth going.

Question number three is how do you handle labor that isn't progressing on a specific timeline? So this is really important, I feel, especially when you want to go unmedicated or maybe this is your first birth.

Sometimes first-time births are very long, very drawn out, and take a little bit more time than a second or third birth.

Just because your body is getting used to the sensations, getting used to the movements, getting used to the progression, and so sometimes it just takes a little bit longer.

So how does your provider handle that and what does it look like if you're not progressing by a certain timeline and what does that timeline look like? Is it every hour they're checking you? Is it every four hours? Are they aligned with how you feel things will progress and how you would like things to be done and really just understanding what that timeline looks like and what that might be like based on your vision of your birth.

Number four is what comfort measures are encouraged before any kind of medical intervention.

So if you're really inclined to having minimal interventions and you want to be as much hands-off as possible, what kind of comfort measures are they encouraging? Are they suggesting that you get a doula? Is their nurse staff very aware of unmedicated birth.

What kind of comfort measures are they familiar with? Are they using birth balls? Do they have different techniques that they like to use? Are they suggesting that you stay at home as long as possible? What does this look like and how are they typically guiding you through labor before they're suggesting any kind of medical intervention such as Pitocin, things like that, and what does that look like? And then going off of that and leading into more questions would be, what is your approach to pain management? And so this is really important because specifically if you want to go unmedicated, if that is your goal, or if you want to see how long you can go without an epidural beforehand, then it's really important to understand what their approach is to pain management.