Choosing an Obstetrician-Gynecologist

Dr. Todd Schad, Obstetrics and Gynecological Surgeon: So, an OB-GYN is a specialist that specializes in the care of women, primarily specializing in the reproductive health of women as well as preventative care and screening for cancers.

To me the biggest or most important part of choosing an OB-GYN is finding somebody that you can communicate with. It's important as an obstetrician and gynecologist to be able to listen to your patients, so you want to make sure that you have found somebody that can listen to your concerns, and then, somebody that communicates back to you well, because ultimately they're the ones that are going to be responsible for your care and so you want to make sure that they are able to explain to you in an understanding way: what's going to happen, how they're going to take care of you and really what your options are.

As an OB-GYN, I've been interviewed by patients before to try to make sure it's the right fit they may have something in their history that is concerning to them or that they're worried about or they want to address up front and kind of see how myself or whoever they're interviewing would deal with that particular situation.

Because, again, it's all about that right fit, it's all about making sure that it's a team process moving forward, because it's not just what I say, it's not just what the patient says, we have to work together and communicate as a team to make sure that we have the outcome that everybody desires, which is either good health, making sure there's not cancer, if it's a surgery making sure that the surgery outcome is what she wants, making sure that the birth or the birth plan goes well -- so it's really all about communication.

End Transcript

Click here to learn more about Dr. Schad.