In Singapore , all pregnant women are cared for by a doctor who specialises in  Obstetrics and Gynaecology (an ObGyn for short). One of the important things the parents need to do during the pregnancy is to find a caregiver that meets their needs and that they are comfortable with. It may help to find out the style of practice the ObGyn is geared towards and see if what you are looking for in a ObGyn matches your expectations of the kind of care and birth you would like to have.

Generally, there are two styles of management, active versus expectant management .

An active management caregiver will probably have a higher episiotomy rate, have time limits for labor after which he/she will want to break waters and/or use drugs to speed up labor, and have clients birthing on the bed (mostly in semi reclining position or with her lying on her back). Those things fit with the point of view of the ObGyn needing to have control to manage the process and using routines to guide that process.

An expectant management caregiver would probably have a lower episiotomy rate and perhaps be familiar with the idea of upright positioning. He/she would probably be comfortable allowing the mother to labor as long as is needed in any stage of labor, as long as the mother and baby are doing well.

He/she would probably be comfortable with women staying at home for some period of time after premature rupture of membranes. These things fit with the point of view of each labor being different, and interventions being used when there is a specific medical indication particular to *this* mother, rather than on a routine basis.

The mother/parents must decide what style of practice she feels comfortable with. If she is wants an expectant management birth, she is not going to get this with an active management ObGyn. If she is wanting her ObGyn to make her feel safe and to make the decisions for her, then she may feel very comfortable with an active management caregiver.

So how do you find out what style of practice the ObGyn you are seeing practices? Try asking open ended rather than closed questions, questions that does not require yes or no answers but rather, enables you to hear what the ObGyn feels about the question you have put forth to him/her and how receptive he/she is to answering your questions. Some questions you could ask are:

From the answers of the ObGyn, it will give the parents an idea of what style the ObGyn practices and if he/she is open to communication. It doesn't matter what style of practice the ObGyn is geared towards. What matters is if the style the ObGyn practices matches the expectations of the parents. If there is a mismatch, the parents can either lower their expectations to match their ObGyn or change caregivers.

You may also find this website helpful:
www.maternitywise.org/mw/topics/caregiver/