I was woefully uninformed with both of my kids. I didn’t know anything about anything, and my only resource was What to Expect when you’re Expecting, which led me to ask my OB the most ridiculous (in hindsight!) questions.

Did I have a choice of practitioner? No. I had heard about birthing centres, and briefly entertained that idea, but the waiting list was long, it was far from home, and there were plenty of naysayers and “OMG THAT’s DANGEROUS” comments that I ended up going to one of the downtown hospitals where I was assigned an OB.

I didn’t know anything about folic acid until after my first appointment with an OB.

Choice in terms of place to give birth? This is pretty well tied to choice of practitioner, I’d say. I could have chosen a different hospital to go to for my first appointment, but I had nothing other than proximity to judge by. Birthing centre, like I said was an esoteric option, and not a true option.

This time round, I started researching midwives before I got pregnant. I also started taking folic acid before having my IUD removed, although not a year in advance. I only knew about the links to neural tube defects. Regardless, low birthweight has not been a problem for me. Both babies were pretty big.

I was disappointed to learn that I could only choose between hospital or home. I would have liked the option of a birthing centre. I was happy to know that a midwife was a totally legit option, and that I was not restricted to an OB. I had some difficulty, due to where I live, finding a midwife who would take me. The Orleans practice wouldn’t take me, but the Cornwall practice would, even though it’s over an hour away. I find it somewhat lacking that there aren’t more midwife practices in the area, but so far, I am very pleased with my midwife team.

I’m at 10 weeks now, and looking forward to the experience of a midwife-assisted homebirth. I feel informed and on top of things, rather than shuffled around from one unexplained compulsory procedure to another.

K.

* How much choice did you have when it came to finding a prenatal care provider? Lots of choice? Or was the choice made for you? — I had quite a bit of choice. But it was relegated to OB’s. I chose an OB I hoped would be a good match for me based on my desire to have a natural birth. Later in my pregnancy I found that she was an awful choice for me and that was when I ran into a lack of options. I wanted to switch to a midwife and have a home birth. My insurance repeatedly told me that a midwife would not be covered. I finally got it out of them that this wasn’t exactly true. A midwife would be covered if I had my baby at a birthing center (which is pretty illogical if you think about it). This infuriated me. But I found a birthing center that was an hour away (without LA traffic) and that is where I had my baby. For #2 I am paying out of pocket to have a home birth despite the ridiculous amount of money we pay monthly to have insurance.

* Where did you go for information when you were pregnant? I went on line, I asked my family and I took a Bradley birthing class. I also took several classes at the birthing center I had my baby at.

* Did you know about the importance of taking folic acid prior to conceiving? Had you heard about the new research about the role folic acid can play in preventing preterm birth (if you take it one year before becoming pregnant)? I didn’t know anything about taking folic acid a year before becoming pregnant. I did know to take folic acid and started taking it and prenatals as soon as my husband and I started to try to conceive.

* Did you feel you had adequate choice in terms of a place to give birth? Did you wish you had more options? No. I wish I had more options. Despite being in Los Angeles, there were few birthing centers to choose from and I ended up finding one that was over an hour away. If I had my way I would have had the baby at home but my insurance would not allow it.

1. How much choice did you have when it came to finding a prenatal care provider? Lots of choice? Or was the choice made for you?

** I had no choice in care provider with my first birth. I have chronic hypertension (210/154 when I was hospitalised at 18 for my idiopathic hypertension) and the fear was about what my BP would do in labour. It was fine. Intervention riddled but fine.

2. Where did you go for information when you were pregnant?

** The only resource I had, despite working in the health care field, was my OB. I didn’t know where else to source information. Therefore, I only had OB sanctioned information to draw answers and resources from. I found the “What to Expect . . .” books but didn’t like the tone in them so discarded them. No one thought to direct me to “The Pregnancy Book,” or “The Birth Book” when I was pregnant. The internet had some resources but, over a decade ago, you can appreciate why this wasn’t my first place to look. There just weren’t the sites available then that there are now.

3. Did you know about the importance of taking folic acid prior to conceiving? Had you heard about the new research about the role folic acid can play in preventing preterm birth (if you take it one year before becoming pregnant)?

** I did know about the folate and was taking it for many months prior to conception. My first pregnancy was 12 years ago so what is new now was not known then.

4. Did you feel you had adequate choice in terms of a place to give birth? Did you wish you had more options?

** Choice of birth place? No. One option and it wasn’t presented as an option. It was presented as fact.

I did take some time penning (typing?) a few thoughts about the article from my perspective as someone who works, hands-on, in the birth field on a daily basis but NOT as a doctor, nurse or midwife. I provide labour support to expectant families. The blog entry I just wrote about this article can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/d7uj72

Thanks for taking the time to investigate this further.
Sam of babyREADY

* How much choice did you have when it came to finding a prenatal care provider? Lots of choice? Or was the choice made for you?
I had the choice of an OB or a registered midwife. My doctor scared us into having an OB. My experience was actually great – my OB was a woman about my age, and supportive of going into labour naturally (wasn’t a fan of S&S even), and natural childbirth. Unfortunately she wasn’t “on” the day that I gave birth, but her support prenatally, combine with two awesome L&D nurses, gave me the confidence to give birth naturally. She came to visit me the next day and gushed about how “nature is amazing.” For future pregnancies, I plan to have a midwife, but if I couldn’t get one, I’d happily go back to this OB.

* Where did you go for information when you were pregnant?
Everywhere! Books (Sears Baby Book was my bible), breastfeeding books, prenatal classes, internet sites.

* Did you know about the importance of taking folic acid prior to conceiving? Had you heard about the new research about the role folic acid can play in preventing preterm birth (if you take it one year before becoming pregnant)?
I knew about the role in preventing neural tube defects. I hadn’t heard until right now about the impact on preterm births.

* Did you feel you had adequate choice in terms of a place to give birth? Did you wish you had more options?
As far as I know my choices are hospital (OB) or home (OB or midwife). I would love to have the option of a low-risk natural birthing centre – I live too far away from a hospital to be comfortable delivering at home, but for my first birth, a hospital was overkill!

I read A LOT when I was pregnant. Books were my resource of choice although the internet was a huge resource. I also attended pre-natal classes and I used the local Health Unit to find classes to attend, like Building Blocks For Better Babies (which I attended as long as I could!).
Despite all of that I’d say that pregnant bloggers and mommy bloggers were where I learned the most. Any question that I ever had was always answered by a ton of people with different perspectives. I still turn to other moms and dads for advice.

Until I told my cousin I was pregnant I had no idea that I should have been taking any kind of vitamin or folic acid. Until I read the information on my prenatal vitamins I had no idea that all women of child-bearing age should be taking a folic acid supplement.
When I did do some research it was easy to find all of the information and the results of new research — I just hadn’t had any idea that I should be looking for it before then.

I made sure to link back to you on my blog!