Hello, everyone. Welcome to parently. My name is Dr. Mark Boyd. I'm a board certified obstetrician gynecologist. I've been in practice for about 25 years. And I'm going to give you some encouragements today that I hope will benefit you moving forward.
Picking your provider is of utmost important for patients. One of the negatives that we hear frequently back in the medical community is my physician, my provider did not answer my questions. I don't feel like they gave me good care. And obviously, as a patient, you were very discouraged. So the three elements of what you should look for in your provider number one, are they going to give you good medical care? Number two, can they take care of me in an emergency situation?
Number three, this may be The single most important, can I relate to them? Will they answer my questions? Will I feel comfortable at the end of my pregnancy? with how I've been taking care of the three groups of health care providers, I want you to look at number one, obstetrician gynecologist, number two family doctors. Number three certified nurse midwives. Now all three groups, deliver babies, all three groups are comfortable and doing their work as far as taking care of pregnant women and managing the end of pregnancy with delivery.
However, each group is going to give you benefits, potentially over the other group, the first group obstetrician gynecologist, of which I'm a member, I'm going to be biased to because of my specialty. ob gyn ns take care of most of the pregnant women in the United States and probably around the world. ob gyn ancef for years of obstetrical and gynecological training, they become board certified and they feel comfortable managing obstetrics, and doing complicated deliveries and certain sections. The second group family practice doctors, Family Practice doctors receive three years of training. Potentially they receive a fourth year if they do an obstetrical fellowship. They also should be board certified and feel comfortable in managing pregnancy and potentially certain sections.
The third group of providers are certified nurse midwives. Most of these are trained and received their master's degree some of them received their PhD. They feel comfortable managing low risk of surgical patients and perform vaginal deliveries. They do not perform complicated management deliveries they did not perform certain sections and they do not manage high risk obstetrical patients. I want to make a special note that CNM Certified nurse midwives are different than lay midwives. Light midwives sometimes practice out in the community.
They typically are not officially trained in obstetrics, they learn their profession by being taught by another light midwife. Their training because of no formality may be limited in their scope, and I encourage you to look at them with wisdom. As a Board Certified obstetrician gynecologist, I do not recommend lay midwives. It's important when you look at whether a physician whether that's an obstetrician gynecologist, or a family doctor is board certified. I encourage you to go to the website American Board of medical specialists ABMs, you can type your doctor's name in and identify Whether they're board certified, if they're board certified, that's an encouragement to you that they've received the appropriate training not only at the end of their residency, but year by year. Very important that you pick your provider with confidence.
Oftentimes the referrals to your provider or by friends or family. These are probably the best way to know if this provider will provide you the elements that you're going to feel comfortable with and moving forward with your pregnancy. Hope this was helpful. Congratulations.