How to Find a VBAC Friendly Doctor?

pinkmoonlight

I posted here a few days ago about getting my medical records. I have decided that I am going to go ahead and find a doctor and just get my records sent to them as I am sure my records will be gone over with me at my first appointment. My question is how do I go about finding a doctor that is VBAC friendly?

I have searched the I-Can Website and found that 5 hospitals with in 45 minutes of my home allow VBAC's. Do I call the Labor and Delivery floors of each hospital and ask the nurse that answers if they could recomend one? Or is there a department that I call to ask? I have posted on a few boards that have local sections to them as well as the I-Can Boards but no one has been able to recomend a specific doctor to me. I dont have a local I Can Chapter near me. The Closest 2 are an hour an a half away.

papagena

I actually got my doctor's name from my pedi (who tends to veer toward the slightly crunchy non-medical side, which fits perfectly with me).  She works with a lot of the OB's/docs at my hospital for deliveries and she mentioned two that she thought handled VBAC's well.

I'd encourage asking any doulas that are in your area.  I'm sure they'd be willing to give suggestions, and they've had experiences with many of the doctors, most likely.  At least here, it's a fairly tight birth community and the names of the unsupportive, intervention & c-section happy doctors get around within the doula/natural birth community.

You could try nurses, but without knowing the nurse, I don't know how much faith I'd put into their recommendations.  When I asked the NP's in our OB office, they were 100% noncommittal on who was VBAC friendly within the practice.  They work with them and have to maintain their relationships.  I never did try at the hospital level, but I'd worry about the same issues.

 

pinkmoonlight

Thank you for your reply. We use a family practitioner for our daughters doctor. While I love the Doctor, I do not think that she will be able to give me a recomendation. She works with in the same hospital as my OB/GYN and from the research I have done on the I-Can Website the hospital I delivered at is not VBAC friendly.

I will go about trying to find a doula in my area to look for suggestions. I would love to try a home birth which in many cases would probally be easier for me to VBAC, but my husband has agreed to this only if I do it in a hospital type setting. He is very shall we say freaked out at the sight of blood and bodily fluids when someone is in pain. He didn't even want to come in the OR (I ended up not being able to even have anyone in there due to being put out).

Thank you again for your suggestion.

 

drakee

A few recommendations:

- Like papagena said, check with local doulas.  They will be able to tell you who truly is VBAC-friendly based on their own experience.

- Consider a certified nurse midwife.  I loved my CNM practice!

- Check the Mothering.com tribe boards.  If you live in an active area, you can get some good feedback.

- Go out and schedule consultations with the OBs/CNMs that interest you.  Bring your questions and interview them.      

Also, keep in mind that the hospital you choose is just as important as the OB or CNM you choose.  Different hospitals have different policies for their VBAC patients.  They may require you to be continuously monitored or may not allow VBACs to be induced at all.  VBAC rates will also differ from hospital to hospital. 

iris427

drakee:

A few recommendations:

- Like papagena said, check with local doulas.  They will be able to tell you who truly is VBAC-friendly based on their own experience.

- Consider a certified nurse midwife.  I loved my CNM practice!

- Check the Mothering.com tribe boards.  If you live in an active area, you can get some good feedback.

- Go out and schedule consultations with the OBs/CNMs that interest you.  Bring your questions and interview them.      

Also, keep in mind that the hospital you choose is just as important as the OB or CNM you choose.  Different hospitals have different policies for their VBAC patients.  They may require you to be continuously monitored or may not allow VBACs to be induced at all.  VBAC rates will also differ from hospital to hospital. 

I agree with this.  I would also see if there are any local forums or groups (like a Yahoo group) for mothers in your area.  

I found my current OB by looking on Mothering.com and a local Yahoo group. I called him and asked if he did VBAC and if we could meet to talk about whether it would be a good option for me.  I had already done a lot of reading about VBAC so I went into the meeting knowing what current research said on VBAC and I was able to compare his answers with what I had read to see if I thought he would be a good VBAC option.  I also talked to him about the factors that lead to my c/s and how we could handle them differently if the same situation happened again.  I liked what he had to say and he made me feel optimistic about VBAC.

pinkmoonlight

Thank you for your suggestions. I emailed three doulas from my area today, I got email addresses off a local parenting website.

I will also look into a midwife, from short little search so far there is very little midwifes in my area. I am going to keep looking thought I want to get a good opinion on if VBACing is safe and right for me.

I will most definately also look at the hospitals as well. There is one hospital in the area that I was definately considering its our big hopital in this area. If anyone has a major car accident and is seriously hurt that is where they go. Its also attached to the local Children's Hospital so I was leaning more towards that. But I wanted to find an OB or Care Provider that I was comfortable with.

Lesley0228

PPers have all offered great advice, but personally, I googled my butt off. I did google searches for "VBAC doctor and my town" and was able to find posts from random baby boards where other people were commenting on their doctors and experiences. I did this repeatedly in different ways. I saw a few names that stuck out. After checking they were on my insurance I started typing a few of the doctors names into google. There are a ton of rate your doctor type pages out there and I would read the comments and scores. I was able to narrow down too great options this way. I was due for my yearly anyways so I scheduled my appt with one and went in with a ton of VBAC questions. I liked the answers and felt comfortable with the practice. As a bonus, I found out that my other top choice shares weekend coverage with the practice I did go with. I probably did this the hard way, but I didn't have any friends with VBAC experience so I used what was available- the internet.