The bottom line when it comes to shopping for maternity care is to ask, ask, ask. If this is your first pregnancy, you may be shy about the whole subject. You will learn quickly that the details of childbirth are a favorite topic among the millions of women who have done it before you. Ask your friends, their friends, your colleagues, relatives, and neighbors who they went to for care, what it was like and what they thought. Then follow your instincts.
Every woman is different.
You are the only one who can know what is best for you. The answers to these questions indicate the amount of intervention during a typical childbirth. An episiotomy rate over 80 percent probably means the cut is made almost automatically, except when delivery is so rapid that there is no time. A high rate of epidural anesthesia tells you that medicated birth is the norm, perhaps even before anyone knows whether human touch and encouragement would be enough to get a woman through. And the cesarean rate indicates your likelihood of a surgical birth.