In my opinion, choosing a birth attendant is the most important decision a woman makes during her pregnancy. Your choice of birth attendant influences not only where you'll give birth (which hospital, which birth center, or at home) but a whole lot about how your pregnancy and labor will be treated.
I strongly prefer getting personal recommendations for birth attendants. You do need to be careful of the source of the recommendation, though. For example, if you want a natural birth and your friend wanted an elective c-section at 38 weeks, you might find that her recommendation for an OB doesn't quite fit with what you're looking for. And vice versa.
I've been lucky to have wonderful birth attendants, despite finding them in very different ways.
With Littles -- October 2006
I used the OB closest to my house. No rhyme or reason. I just thought that's what people did when they got pregnant. It ended up working out OK for me, but that was pure dumb luck.
With baby #2 -- February 2009
I asked for recommendations on the Mothering.com "Find Your Tribe" group for my area and on a local attachment parenting Yahoo! group. I figured that the women frequenting those types of groups would likely share my perspective on birth.
From those recommendations, I interviewed a homebirth midwife, but didn't feel like I "clicked" with her. I set up an appointment with a hospital-based midwifery group, but miscarried a few weeks before the appointment.
With Noob -- May 2009
Initially, I went with the same hospital-based midwifery group that I had planned to use for baby #2.
Towards the end of my pregnancy, when I decided to switch to homebirth, I already knew exactly which midwife I wanted to use, based on my prior research. Had she not had availability, I don't know that I would have followed through with the switch. Luckily, she did, and she was amazing!
With Baby Q -- October 2011
I'm using the same homebirth midwife who delivered Noob. I can't imagine having anyone else take care of me and my new baby.
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