Open the app

Choosing a hospital and what to ask

Which hospital you plan to give birth in, and what to compare: how close it is, how advanced its newborn intensive-care unit is, its cesarean rate, and its policies on visitors, doulas and rooming-in.

How do we choose a hospital for the birth, and what should we ask?

In short: Parents choose between 4 main approaches: Nearest hospital; Hospital with the highest level of newborn intensive care; Hospital with a low cesarean rate and the policies you want; Hospital with an attached birth center. Evidence: evidence leans one way. Research or guidance points in a direction, but it's thin, small or correlational. Best settled: during pregnancy.

Evidence
Evidence leans one way
Best settled
During pregnancy
Part of
Pregnancy to first birthday

Choosing a hospital and what to ask: what are the options?

Parents usually land on one of these 4 approaches.

  1. 1. Nearest hospital

    You choose the closest hospital for convenience and a short trip in labor.

  2. 2. Hospital with the highest level of newborn intensive care

    You choose a hospital that can care for very early or very sick newborns on site.

  3. 3. Hospital with a low cesarean rate and the policies you want

    You compare hospitals on how often they do cesareans and on policies that matter to you.

  4. 4. Hospital with an attached birth center

    You choose a hospital that also has a midwife-led birth center.

Choosing a hospital and what to ask: what does the evidence say?

Evidence leans one way. Research or guidance points in a direction, but it's thin, small or correlational.

The AAP grades newborn units from Level I (healthy newborns) to Level IV (the most complex surgical care) and says Level III units handle babies born under 32 weeks or under 1,500 g, so a hospital's level matters most if you might deliver early. Cesarean rates vary widely by hospital: the Leapfrog Group found only 39.1% of 1,122 hospitals met its target of 23.9% or lower for first-time, full-term, head-down single births, with rates ranging from under 26% to over 40% within one metropolitan area. Questions worth asking include cesarean rate, newborn unit level, visitor and rooming-in policies, and whether midwives or doulas are welcome

Sources

What else is worth knowing?

Hospitals differ in more than location. They vary in how advanced their newborn unit is, how often births end in cesarean, and in policies on visitors, doulas, movement in labor and keeping the baby in your room. A tour and a few direct questions will tell you a lot.

Questions to ask each other

  • What matters most to us in a hospital: closeness, the newborn unit, or how they handle birth?
  • Which questions should we ask on a tour about cesarean rates, visitors and support people?
  • What would we want if the baby came early?

More in Pregnancy, birth and arrival

First published 2026-10-03. Last updated 2026-10-05. General information, not medical advice.