Nosey Q - Did you Interview?

A post in the TTC thread got me thinking:

Did any of you interview your MW?

I rang the one that has been recommended to me by lots of people and she was full, so rang the second one that was recommended to me and booked in with her.

I know my MIL (who is a retired MW) would never meet with people to interview - she said that they either want her or they don't and that she was too busy to be "interviewed".

Did other people find this?

I rang the midwife centre down the road from us and out of 6 mw's there was only one that could fit me in. At our first meeting I suppose we each interviewed the other to see if what I wanted matched the way she worked. She did tell me to call other mw if I wanted to but I was happy and comfortable with her (and to a certain extent couldn't be bothered shopping around) so stuck with her. It was a good gut instinct call as she was brilliant and we hope to use her when we have #2

i rang 5 and took the first one that had space.. :) lol..

After calling 20 places with all of their m/w's being booked (including yours lol) I just went with the one I could get (I had to beg her to take me). I was 12 weeks at the time though. My recommendation would be to interview a lot if you can! I absolutely hate my m/w, think she is really bad at her job and would never recommend her. But then again I didn't know that she was that bad until I was 20 weeks and by then I had the hosp spec's and a private spec on board so I had backup if she was useless.

My first one came to our house to see us for the first time. I was due on 29 Dec so felt I wouldn't have much choice. But also after she came around that first time, I would have felt rude to change my mind.

I met with mine, checked that she had had kids herself and signed on!

With my first pregnancy I called three midwives, one told me to interview the others and call her back if I didn't like any of them, one didn't return my call and I ended up meeting with one who I booked in with because I wasn't impressed with the other two and thought she was good. She was very experienced and had some key things we were looking for. She was very good in her professional care, but we never really clicked personally. I booked in with her again for my second pregnancy, against my gut instinct to look around again, and in the end switched midwives at 34 weeks when it became very apparent that what I wanted for the birth plan and what she provided were different things - still an excellent and competent midwife, just the personal differences were too much for me to ignore. Luckily I found a wonderful midwife who made space for me at short notice and I love her to bits. I think it's very important to go with your gut instinct and it's hard to do that over the phone - I didn't listen to myself and it made it very stressful before/during the change of midwife. I regret not shopping around in the first place, but it all ended up ok in the end.

when i got pregnant with jack, i rang around a few mw's and if they sounded ok on the phone, we went and had an 'interview'    which i'm so glad we did, because we met with 3 different ladies before celia, she was the only one that came to our home and the only one i felt truly comfortable with.
she was also my mw second time around. when i rang her and said who i was, she remembered us and jack straight away and that made me feel really special!   oh how i miss her

i feel it's really important to actually meet with the mw before signing on as you can see how you truly feel about the person. you have to be comfortable with the person you are sharing such a special moment with in your life. in my opinion, if the mw doesn't want to meet you first, then i'd find someone else

I just rang up the local hospital here in Rangiora and booked in with the one they gave me. She ended up being on holiday for the whole of may, so I had 2 other ones taking care of me on different days, but the one that stuck with me thru the birth etc we'll go with next time round. She was a real sweetie.

KA i just meant that you can get more of a 'feel' for a person and how you feel around them if you meet them in person.

when i met celia the first time, i knew i wanted her to help me bring my babies into the world   but i didn't get that with the others i met