Choosing your doctor after you find out you are pregnant

You find out that you are pregnant and the next step is to find a doctor that you will work with for the next 9 months. How are you going to decide who to see, though?

Ask your friends first: If you have any friends or family members who already has kids, ask them whether or not they would recommend their doctor to you. They will either say “yes, absolutely” then you will be done with your search or “ absolutely not, I am looking for a new provider as well.” Then you will eliminate that doctor from your list.

Think about our laboring options: If you want a natural home birth experience then an OBGYN will not do a home visit. If you want to do a home birth or water birth in the hospital, then you may want to work with midwives instead of an ONGYN. If you definitely want epidural and be in a hospital, or you need to have a C-section due to a medical condition then you will have to work with an OBGYN.

birth-expense_0 Call your insurance and ask for a list of providers: Today, insurance does not cover your medical services 100%. Meeting your deductibles and paying for your co-pays can become very expensive very quickly. You can contact your insurance for a list of in-network providers that would cost less for you compared to out-of-network offices. I received a 13 page in-network providers list where I had the opportunity to choose the OBGYN that I wanted to work with.

Read reviews online: I found my OBGYN on the 6^th page of a 13 page list that was given to my by my insurance. Luckily, Google has a lot of information including providers education, patient reviews and ratings, office hours/schedule and sometimes pictures. I found that the reviews were very helpful. The OBGYNs on the first 5 pages if my list had 2-3/5 starts due to varies different reasons. Some complaints included office staff being rude, doctor being more money than patient oriented, unpleasant smell in the office to more serious things like mismanagement on doctors end and patient getting hurt. Definitely do a little research!

Ask to go in to the office to get a feel for the office, staff and the doctor before you make a commitment: It is okay to call the office and set a meeting with either the doctor him/herself or with the office manager to get your questions/concerns addressed and answered. Do not feel weird about it because you want to make sure you feel comfortable with what you are singing up for the next 9 months of your life.

Remember you can always change your provider if you want to: Life happens right? If you are not happy with your provider after couple of visits, you can always change your providers. Also in some cases, people have to relocate or even worse lose insurance benefits therefore have to choose another doctor. You will re-start your search.