What’s up Doc??

• Picking a provider for the birth of your baby can be a nerve wracking choice. At Windy City Doulas, we have worked with OBs and midwives, home births and hospitals, and everything in between. What we have found makes for the best birth experience is being on the same page with your provider and hospital. Here are some simple steps to find a good hospital and provider

• Where do you want to have your baby?

  1. Home: We are lucky in Chicago to have legal home birth options. This usually means having a midwife. Just a hint: Gentle Birth Care fills quickly so call them asap!

  2. Hospital: This is the most common place to deliver. Most practices only have privileges at one hospital or two if they’re part of a hospital system. This means you have to decide if the provider or location is most important when starting your search.

  3. Birth Center: In Chicagoland, we have out-of-hospital and in-hospital birth centers, both located in the Oak Park area. This also means delivering with a midwife. Check out the PCC birth center and the ABC rooms at West Suburban

• Are there amenities that are important to you? Each hospital has its unique attributes, so deciding which amenities are most important can narrow down your hospital choice. Some things that are important to our clients at Windy City Doulas are:

  1. Access to fast epidurals (Prentice has the best anesthesia staff by far)

  2. Access to labor/water birth tubs (check out our water birth blog),

  3. Wireless monitoring

  4. NICU level

  5. Number of lactation consultants (Evanston is our favorite for this)

  6. C-section policies (family centered c-sections)

• What/who does your insurance cover? Not all insurance companies cover all hospitals. When choosing a provider, make sure their delivering hospital is also in your network. Some clients pick a hospital first and then a provider from the list of delivering providers at that hospital

• Are there special circumstances around your delivery? If your pregnancy is unique you may want to find a provider who specializes in your special circumstance. Things considered unique would be

  1. VBAC

  2. Twins or triplets

  3. Family centered c-sections

  4. Advanced maternal age

  5. Higher BMI

  6. Fertility treatment

  7. Preexisting conditions such as blood pressure or blood sugar issues

• Are there interventions that you’d like to avoid? Some families have strong preferences on avoiding specific interventions. If these are deal breakers for you, you want to have these conversations early. Things that can be deal breakers include:

  1. IV access

  2. Continuous monitoring

  3. Induction methods

  4. Gestational cutoffs 

  5. Newborn medications

• Still having trouble deciding? Call or email us to setup a consultation!