Questions to Ask Your Provider
How to Choose a Care Provider for Pregnancy and Delivery
Choosing a care provider for your pregnancy and birth is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as a new or expecting parent. Whether you’re considering a homebirth with a midwife or a hospital delivery with a physician, evidence shows that the provider you choose can shape your birth experience, impact your health outcomes, and influence how supported and informed you feel every step of the way.
If you’re exploring midwifery care—especially homebirth—there are unique benefits and considerations to keep in mind. Here’s a guide to help you ask the right questions and choose a provider who aligns with your values and needs.
Why the Right Fit Matters
Midwives are trained professionals who provide comprehensive care throughout pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. They offer a personalized, relationship-based model of care, centered around informed decision-making, physiological birth, and a deep respect for your autonomy. When choosing your provider, it’s important to ask questions that go beyond clinical credentials and explore philosophy, experience, and safety practices.
Questions to Ask When Interviewing a Care Provider
1. What credentials and training do you have?
Not all midwives are the same. Ask whether your provider is a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM), Certified Professional Midwife (CPM), or another type of licensed (or unlicensed) practitioner. Each credential has different training pathways, practice autonomy allowances and scopes of practice. Some credentials are better suited for home or birth center care (“out of hospital”) while others are more appropriate in a hospital setting. Ask your potential provider what their experience is with attending births in all these settings and why they chose to predominantly attend births in one or the other. A well-resourced provider will have experience attending births in all settings and will be able to verbalize the unique benefits and risks of each. If you are choosing to deliver at home, it is important to keep in mind that the CPM credential is the only credential that REQUIRES experience in out-of-hospital deliveries. All other credentials only require hospital delivery experience, therefore, these other credentials may not have had any training or experience in any other setting than the hospital. So this is a good question to get clarification for.
2. Am I a good candidate for homebirth or midwifery care?
A qualified midwife will assess your health history, pregnancy risk level, and location to determine whether a homebirth is a safe option. Low-risk pregnancies with no significant complications are typically the best fit. If you live over 30 minutes from a hospital then a birth center or hospital might be a better fit unless you can find an alternative location for delivery.
3. What is your philosophy of care?
Do they support physiologic birth? Are they comfortable with shared decision-making and informed consent? A supportive provider will welcome your questions, respect your intuition, provide you with all the benefits and risks for various interventions, will allow for nuance and individualized care and tailor their recommendations to your unique needs and values vs. “policy” or generic organizational guidelines.
4. What is your transfer plan in case of emergency?
A well-trained midwife will always have a plan for hospital transport if complications arise. Ask how often they’ve transferred clients, how they coordinate with local hospitals, and what role they play in the transfer. Midwives with long standing reputations in the community will have clear transfer plans and usually transfer agreements with at least one local hospital, if not several.
5. How do you support postpartum care?
Many midwives offer several home visits in the days and weeks after birth to support recovery, breastfeeding, and newborn well-being. Ask what kind of postpartum care you can expect, including visits, newborn weight assessments, lactation support, and mental health screening. Also ask if the provider will administer all the state mandated newborn testing. Licensed midwives can provide all the same testing as the hospital including the Newborn Screening (PKU), Hearing screening and the Critical Congenital Heart Defect (CCHD) testing. Licensed midwives can also assess newborn blood sugar and bilirubin in the home setting.
6. Who will be at my birth?
Some midwives work solo; others bring assistants or work in teams. It’s important to know who will be present at your birth and what their roles are. It is also important to ask what the plan is if 2 people are in labor at the same time and whether the midwife has a back-up plan in the event of illness or exhaustion duringr a long labor.
7. What supplies or equipment do you bring to a homebirth?
Ask about the tools, medications, and emergency equipment your midwife brings for maternal-fetal safety at home. A benefit of choosing a licensed midwife is that they will bring Oxygen, anti-hemorrhagic medications, IV fluids, suturing supplies (including lidocaine) and newborn resuscitation equipment (including CPAP and LMA) as a standard of care. In many states (including TN), licensed midwives will bring everything to your home that would be standard at a free standing birth center.
8. What is your approach to informed consent and shared decision-making?
It is your right to be an active participant in your own care. A provider committed to informed choice will take time to explain options, risks, and benefits—and will support your right to decline or choose alternatives. Ask specifically about routine testing, labs, imaging, gestational date ranges and any scenarios they absolutely would not support due to limited experience/skill-set or protocols.
Also ask about Supervision vs. Collaboration. “Supervision: means that a physician is legally and clinically responsible for overseeing the midwife’s practice. The midwife may need explicit approval, protocols, or co-signatures to carry out certain tasks. “Collaboration” is a mutual professional relationship between a midwife and a physician where they work together only when needed, but the midwife is independently responsible for their own practice. CNMs are required to have “Supervision” where as CPMs only need “Collaboration,” which allows for a higher level of autonomy in decision-making. Make sure to get clarification around this when discussing how decisions for care will be made.
Collaboration is the preferred model by organizations like the American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Lancet Midwifery Series, because it:
Enhances safety,
Promotes trust,
Respects provider autonomy,
Reduces unnecessary intervention and improves outcomes.
9. What does your care schedule look like?
Although Midwifery care typically follows the same prenatal schedule, it often includes longer prenatal visits, emotional support, nutritional counseling and physical, educational and emotional preparation for labor and birth. Ask about visit frequency, availability for questions between visits, and support during early labor.
10. What is your fee structure and is this care covered by insurance?
Some midwifery services are covered by insurance or Medicaid, while others are private pay. Ask about payment plans, what’s included in the fee, and how billing works.
The Takeaway
The relationship you build with your provider during pregnancy sets the tone for your entire birth experience. Asking thoughtful questions helps ensure you’re receiving safe, respectful, and aligned care—whether you choose a homebirth midwife, a birth center, or a hospital-based team. Trust your instincts and do your research.
The midwives at Music City Midwifery believe that YOU are the expert of your own experience. If you are looking for a provider for a current or future pregnancy we would love to answer any questions or help you find the right fit! Contact us here.
Resources:
https://nationalpartnership.org/
https://www.tn.gov/
https://midwife.org/