Call dr when going to L&D?

notreallyirish

Did you call your OB or his/her service when you were on your way into the hospital in labor?

DH was complaining about patients doing this. Well, he had someone call him actually from L&D yesterday, which was the catalyst for the complaint. He said it's fine to call and ask if you should go, but that it's pointless to call if you are already on your way because he will be paged when you are triaged anyway. He said he tells his patients at what stage of labor they should go in and when they reach it to just go and not worry about calling. I said it seems like a lot of women are under the impression they are supposed to call, especially FTMs. Maybe some OBs tell their patients to call, especially if they are in solo practice.

Anyway, did you call? Did your dr tell you to call or not?

Arnegard

3x inducee.  I was scheduled.

notreallyirish

I will add, personally I would not have had any idea if I was supposed to call or not. I'm not sure if my doctors gave instructions or not. It's such an overwhelming time, I would likely have forgotten what they said anyway.

JJC925

I called first when I went in for other reason, like my first son wasn't moving and she seemed annoyed I called and told me to go in. I just went in without calling when my water broke. This pregnancy I called due to being 34 weeks and having a lot of contractions, but irregular, so I didn't know and she said not to go in. It can be very confusing, so I get why some people don't know if they should call or not. Especially if it's a practice with lots of drs who could tell everyone different things. But why would you call when you're already there?? That makes no sense.

Andrewsgal

My doctor specifically told me NOT to call.

Mrs.Greg

Nope. The hospital called once I was being admitted. Both times.

new+tothis

I went in with a pregnancy complication - didn't call. My OB told me I should always, always call. Even if it is just a heads up that I know I need to be seen (like water breaking or whatever). I live 40 minutes from the hospital so she said it is fine to call on my way in.

bumpuser8448316

That seems like a really insignificant thing to complain about.

Rink08

I only had to call if my water broke with DS2 (which it did) because he had low fluid. However, I also went to places where you got whichever doctor was there/on call and not a specific one in the practice.

jensriot

With my first two, he said to go in at a certain point in labor. I think he said to call if I was unsure.

With my third he said to just go in if I felt like I was in labor. We live about 45 minutes away and I was dilating and effacing starting at 35 weeks. None if us thought I'd make it to my induction date.

My doc has his own practice with a midwife.

Just a curious question, does he get tons of calls after hours? I rarely called, but almost anything I had concerns about happened during office hours.

 

bumpuser8448316

Kimbus22 said:

new+tothis said:

I went in with a pregnancy complication - didn't call. My OB told me I should always, always call. Even if it is just a heads up that I know I need to be seen (like water breaking or whatever). I live 40 minutes from the hospital so she said it is fine to call on my way in.

Yeah come to think of it this OB has always said call him first regardless of what is happening.  He said even if I need to go to the ER/L&D he wants to know what's happening.  So I assume he'll want me to call the office when I'm heading in for birth.

Mine says to call too. Better to have a heads up and time to make it to the hospital than get a call that your patient is in distress and you didn't even know they were headed to L&D

jillyjill1026sr

The hospital I delivered at asked that you call before heading in. They have midwives who deliver the babies; the doctor on-call only delivers c-sections. My water broke at night, DH called to give them a head's up that we were heading in and ask if it was okay for me to take a shower. We arrived about 45 minutes after my water broke.

notreallyirish

It is a small thing to be annoyed about, but the man is easily annoyed. It is annoying how easily he is annoyed. And I think for him it's how his practice is structured. Whoever is on call delivers most of the time. If he were in solo practice and delivering all his own patients he'd want to be prepared.

@JenS2203‌ He does get lots of after hours calls when he is on call, and that annoys him as well. He thinks they should not have an after hours line because it is so misused and opens them up to liability. He thinks people should just come in to the hospital if there is an emergency or make an appointment. I see his point, but I think it also comes with the territory. He thinks our pedi should have an after hours line, so he is not against them if he's not the one who is inconvenienced or opening himself up to lawsuits. His issues are that there's no record for calls he takes at home, he doesn't have a chart in front of him, and obviously he can't do a physical exam. A lot of people want reassurance that everything is fine and when he can't tell them that over the phone it often doesn't go over well. A lot of the people he tells to come in do not. Or if he tells them everything is fine they sometimes call the office the next day and claim they were told they need to be seen ASAP. Other people call for things they should make an appointment for or call the office during the day...refills, stds, long term problems they just decide to call about at 10 pm. For every reasonable patient he gets 3 difficult or non compliant patients. My solution is that the after hours person be in house, like a nurse line, and recorded, but they didn't ask me.

LoveBeingMama

My hospital required a call. They told us a million times that we had to call, be assessed on the phone, and they would determine if we should come in. They said we should absolutely not just show up at the hospital. With both of my boys, I went into labor overnight. I called the answering service, and they paged the on call doctor at the hospital. With DS1 we waited and waited for the call (maybe 45 minutes?), and finally decided to just to go the hospital. The doc finally called us as we pulled up to the hospital. With DS2, same thing, but the doctor never called us back. I knew it was the right time, and just went to the hospital anyway. I arrived at the hospital with contractions about 2-3 minutes apart and I was about 7.5 cm. Glad I didn't wait for the return call much longer.

alexio06

I was told to call before going in. My dr is the only one in the practice.

ToastieSimons

We called at like 10:30 asking if we should go in.  The on call doctor said it sounded like a false alarm but to go in and get checked if I wanted.  I finally went in at 11:15 and was already 5cm.  They paged the dr after the hospital dr verified i was in active labor.

Deblondie1

I was told to call because I was high risk, have fast labors, and lived an hour away.

rosesandpetals

I called in the morning because I was bleeding a lot and wasn't sure if it was normal (spoke with the MW directly). Then, I called the birth center when contractions were 6 minutes apart to ask if I needed to come in. Then, a few hours later, I called the birth center when we were on our way.

Our birth center lets mothers stay in the same room for labor and delivery and recovery so we had to call to tell them we were coming because if all the rooms were full, they would transfer a mother and baby to a recovery room so I could have the room with the tub. They needed a heads up to do this, though.

caranichole

Sounds like he's just letting off steam then. 

I have never made it to full term so I of course, always made the call. But this is interesting. Fx I make it to 9 mths and can have this internal debate of whether or not to call. lol

ETA: saved early

notkateanymore

I was told to call on the way and I would be pissed if it annoyed my doctor to be called on the way...why should I have to wait?

ariel06

I had to call the hospital, but not the doctor.  Once labor and delivery assessed, they paged doctors. There is always one OB in labor and delivery on duty at the the hospital to help deliver (not necessarily from my clinic).  DS2 was born on a Sunday night and there were several patients from our clinic delivering, so they called in more doctors from my clinic than were on call,  

notreallyirish

KateMW said:

I was told to call on the way and I would be pissed if it annoyed my doctor to be called on the way...why should I have to wait?

I think his annoyance is mostly unwarranted, but I also don't think calling really affects your wait time. You are still most likely going to be triaged, checked in and then checked by a nurse. When you see your doctor depends on your stage in labor, your risk and how busy the doctor is. I didn't see my doctors until I'd been in the hospital several hours with both of my kids.

Mama-Bear

I didn't call when I was in labor with DS1.  I had scheduled c/s with my last 2 pg's.

meglew

I was induced both times, so I just called L&D 2 hours prior to my scheduled induction to make sure there was space.

However, had I gone into labor prior to that, if it was during office hours, I was to call the OB practice directly.  If it was after hours, just call L&D.  My doctor's office was on the campus of the hospital though and could have been there within a matter of minutes.

MesmrEwe

I'm a 2-time inductee, so never had to even think about "waiting it out"...  The hospital I delivered at and OB's/MW asked that we call the triage nurse line before we went in for anything...  After chatting with some of the L&D nurses while there on complication trips, it helps for staffing purposes for them if they need to call in backup when there are mini "baby booms" and also if there is a complication so they can start prepping before you arrive...  It also makes it so things that can be handled in-clinic can be handled that way instead of L&D... 

While my OB gave me his home number, I've never called it - I have however stuck to calling the triage nurse at L&D who handled the complication properly..  I should add the hospital I delivered at had multiple docs/MW's so you never knew who was assigned to L&D at any moment...

notkateanymore

joirish said:

I was told to call on the way and I would be pissed if it annoyed my doctor to be called on the way...why should I have to wait?

I think his annoyance is mostly unwarranted, but I also don't think calling really affects your wait time. You are still most likely going to be triaged, checked in and then checked by a nurse. When you see your doctor depends on your stage in labor, your risk and how busy the doctor is. I didn't see my doctors until I'd been in the hospital several hours with both of my kids.

Possibly, but I'm not running the risk just to make it easier on him.:) Also, I was a RCS had anything happened that made me go to L&D my doc really wanted to make sure she was there for me.

NHbride129

I did not call and the nurses and the nurses at L&D asked me why I didn't and made it seem like a big deal.