Choosing who is going to care for you and your baby during pregnancy, birth and for the first few weeks of your baby's life is one of the most important decisions you will make in early pregnancy.

Don't feel rushed into making this decision. Talk to friends and family about their experiences but remember choices for childbirth have changed in New Zealand in the past few years.

Organisations such as Parents Centre, La Leche League, Home Birth Association and Women's Centres can all offer advice on choosing a carer, but at the end of the day you will need to choose a midwife, specialist or GP who meets your own special needs.The following is a list of questions that you may wish to ask when you are choosing a lead maternity carer (or LMC for short).

• what are your qualifications and experience?
• how many births have you attended?
• what services do you offer?
• how many antenatal and postnatal visits, home visits will I be entitled to?
• do you offer the whole range of maternity services and if you don't who do you work in co-operation with?
• will I have any choice in choosing these other providers?
• will you attend the whole labour?
• will you assess me at home and hospital?
• how can you be contacted?
• what happens after hours or when you are on holiday?
• what is your caseload?
  The College of Midwives recommends a caseload of no more than 60-70 births per year for midwives. The optimum caseload for doctors depends on how much hands-on care they are doing, but in general should be similar to midwives if providing full care
• how much time do you set aside for each antenatal consultation?
• how many of the births you attend require intervention? What type of intervention? Why?
• if I require specialist obstetric care during my pregnancy who do you call and when?
• when attending a birth at home what emergency equipment do you routinely carry?
• tell me about how you review the quality of your practice?

The choice you make comes only after careful consideration of the available options, your own personal situation and satisfactory answers to the above questions.

Choose someone who you feel is willing to listen to what you want, who understands your hopes and concerns and who provides the information and support you need to make informed choices. Above all you need to be able to trust and communicate well with whom ever you finally choose.

Remember that if you feel you have made the wrong decision and need to change your LMC you are free to change at any time.

Search for a midwife in your area here.

Further information and support

Maternity Services Consumer Council
Box 99 283
Newmarket
Auckland
Tel (09) 520 5314
fax (09) 520 4152

You can also call the Ministry of Health maternity information line 0800 686 223 (0800 MUM2BE).