Types of Medical Credentials
Now that you’ve considered your own personal needs and preferences when choosing the best practitioner to guide you through your pregnancy, it’s time to check what types of medical credentials are actually available.
The Obstetrician
An obstetrician-gynecologist is trained to attend to every aspect of pregnancy—labor, delivery, postpartum period and the like. If you are looking fro a practitioner who can answer every question you throw his/her way (related to pregnancy of course), then an ob-gyn is your best way to go. More than 80% of pregnant women are already seeking the services of ob-gyns.
If you are going through a high-risk pregnancy, there’s all the more reason for you to choose an ob-gyn. You may also want to go for an obstetrician who specializes in maternal-fetal medicine. They have the expertise needed to handle situations like yours.
The Family Practitioner
Unlike the obstetrician, the family practitioners did not have specialized training in women’s reproductive health. They are your usual family practitioner (FP), the one you go to for your one-stop medical services. 10-12 percent of expectant mothers choose family practitioners.
The advantage of going for a family doctor is that you get an internist, an obstetrician and a pediatrician all in one package. You can keep coming back to the same practitioner, even after you’ve given birth, which brings you to yet another advantage—your FP may become involved in your family affairs and would be interested in many different aspects of your health.
If complications do exist, your FP can simply send you to a specializing obstetrician, while remaining involved in your well-being.
The Certified Nurse-Midwife
If you are looking for a practitioner who will treat your pregnancy more as a human condition than just another medical situation, then a certified nurse-midwife (CNM) is your best choice. A CNM will not only attend to your medical needs but will also talk to you about emotional issues and womanly needs. 9 percent of pregnant women go for certified nurse-midwives.
A CNM is a nurse who went on to complete graduate-level programs in midwifery. CNM’s are trained to attend to low-risk pregnancies and uncomplicated births. Studies have shown that deliveries for low-risk pregnancies done by CNM’s are as safe as deliveries attended by physicians.
If you decide on a CNM, make sure that you go only for those who are licensed and certified.
Direct-Entry Midwives
Unlike the certified nurse-midwife, direct-entry midwives didn’t train for becoming nurses and went straight ahead for a degree in midwifery (or some of them took a health care area other than nursing). Many direct-entry midwives do home births, while others do deliveries in birthing centers. Those who are certified are called Certified Professional Midwives (CPM). Others are not certified at all.
Relax and make your pregnancy the joyous occasion that it is!
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