Each doctor works at a specific hospital (only a few work in more than one) so your answer to this question will help identify which particular doctors or group practices you might be interested in following your pregnancy.

It’s important to note that most doctors work in a team of doctors and rotate when they are at the hospital. The doctor you see prenatally may happen to be on staff on the day you give birth but it is far more likely that it will be another member of their team who will be there. There are only a handful of doctors in Montreal who are on-call for you and will attempt to be there for your baby’s birth.

Here are a few things to consider when choosing a place of birth, some of them might surprise you.

What are the options for non-pharmacological pain relief?

Things like hydrotherapy (bath), laughing gas/entronox sterile water injections, etc. Whether you plan on having an epidural or not, it is always good to know what other pain relief options are available just in case the epidural is not available to you or is not as effective as you'd hoped.

What facilities are available in the birthing unit?

The birthing rooms are always private but the postpartum rooms may not be. What is the availability of private bathrooms, showers, bathtubs? What is the postpartum room set up: private vs semi private, access to private shower?

What types of doctors have birthing privileges at the hospital?*

All Montreal hospitals with birthing units have obstetricians on staff. Only some have Family doctors with hospital privileges.
These Montreal area hospitals have Family Doctors on the birthing unit:
Saint Mary’s Hospital
Jewish General Hospital
Lasalle Hospital
Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital
CHUM (Saint Luc) Hospital
Sacré Coeur Hospital

Is there access to a level 3 NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit)?

A Level 3 NICU has an array of staff and specialized equipment to care for the smallest and sickest newborns 24/7.
These Montreal area hospitals have a level 3 NICU:
Ste-Justine Hospital
Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital
Jewish General Hospital
Royal Victoria Hospital (through the Montreal Children's Hospital at the Glen site).

What is your language of preference?

While most of the staff at the hospital birthing units are capable of speaking both English and French (and often many other languages!), you are most likely to find staff comfortable in English at:
Royal Victoria Hospital (Glen site)
Saint Mary’s Hospital
Jewish General Hospital

Some of these different aspects may be more or less important to you, everyone is different. Notice that the distance to the hospital from your home is not something I would prioritize. Some facilities that regularly work with high risk populations are more conservative in their approaches to interventions, for instance not wanting people to eat in labour, while in most hospitals it is standard for people to eat as they wish. Depending on your preferences this may shift where you want to have your baby.