3rd Trimester

does your doctor deliver?

I use a health system that is HUGE!!!! I see a doctor at an office about 45 minutes from the hospital and there are 5 or so other doctors that practice out of that office. There are 3 other offices with different doctors at those with 4-5 doctors at each.

There is one thing that I hate about my office. I have a 1 in 20 chance that my doctor will deliver my baby. So I see this doctor for my whole pregnancy and if she happens to be on call when I am in labor, then she will deliver. Both pregnancies so far, I have had a doctor that I have never even laid eye balls on come in and deliver the baby. Our records are electronic so the doctors at the hospital have all my records from my appointments but it just isn't the same. I was asking my doctor if it has changed at all since I had my daughter and she said that they have added a new safety to the system.

She will be notified when I come to the hospital (all her patient, she gets notified when they arrive) and she has access from a work lap top she carries to my monitor strips and she can call and consult with the doctors that are at the hospital, if she is needed.

It just isn't the same, it bugs me a little to have a stranger come in now but honestly when I had the other kids... I was in so much pain, I didn't care and just wanted baby out!

Does your specific doctor deliver your baby or is it like my situation where it is whoever is on call?

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Re: does your doctor deliver?

  • There are 6 doctors who deliver out of my practice.  Whoever is on call is the one who delivers, but they do rotations during the week so that we see all the doctors in the practice.  That way, whoever is there is definitely no stranger.  In fact, the doctor who ended up delivering Brendan turned out to be my favorite OB while I was going to appointments!  I would have never known if I didn't have this option.  It turned out I liked this system, even though I didn't think I would.
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  • With both, it was whoever is on call

    With DS, my OB practice was small enough that I was able to have an appointment with each of the doctors.  (My regular OB was not on call when I was laboring with DS, but like you said, I didn't care who was between my legs, I just wanted him out!)  With this LO, we're now being seen through a Naval Hospital, so I have no idea how many OBs there are and who's even at my regular appointments 

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  • There are two midwives in my office, you see both throughout your pregnancy. One of those two will be the one to catch my baby.
  • It used to be that we saw all the doctors in our office. But it changed this time. My doctor said that since you could get one of the other doctors from one of the other practices, it didn't matter that you saw all the ones in their office. So I have just been seeing my doctor.
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  • My OB will deliver if it's during business hours, or 1 of the 5 doctors in her practice if it's at night/on the weekend, depending who is on call.

    I'm hoping to get a different doctor, actually. Mine was the only one who would take me on when I had to switch to an OB at 22 weeks. She's nice, but doesn't have a lot of experience, and really seems to want to push me toward a C-section.

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  • There are 3 doctors in my practice and I have met 2 out of the 3 throughout my pregnancy. I will meet the 3rd before I deliver so that I have had a chance to meet everyone incase my OB is not on call when I deliver.

    It has already been discussed that all the OBs in the practive deliver all their own patients if the birth happens during the day the only way another OB in the practice could deliver for me is if I deliver at night, then I am at the mercy of whoever is on call that night. But that is why they have you meet each doctor in the practice before you deliver. My sister used my OB when she had her son though and she said he is really good about trying to be there for the delivery, even if he isnt exactly on call that night.

    Being in such a huge practice like that would worry me a tad, I mean they are all qualified to do the job, but you have built a relationship with your assigned OB and he/she knows things about your pregnancy that may not be in your chart.

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  • There's no way I would have even considered a practice that my doctor wouldn't have delivered my baby.

    It was really important to me to find a doctor with really low intervention rates.

    He had one other doctor in his practice, but unless one was sick/out of town, they deliver all of their own patients.

    At least in a practice with only one or two other doctors you can meet them.

     

    When it actually came time to deliver, the president could have been catching him and I wouldn't have known.

      The lead up to delivery was different though, I was so much calmer knowing my doctor was supportive of my decision not to use meds.  

  • imagemissfire:

    My OB will deliver if it's during business hours, or 1 of the 5 doctors in her practice if it's at night/on the weekend, depending who is on call.

    This is the same for me.

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  • imagekristintho:
    imagemissfire:

    My OB will deliver if it's during business hours.

    This is the same for me.

    Wow. Sounds like they maybe should have chosen a different career path imo.

  • imageWannaBeCrunchyMama:

    There's no way I would have even considered a practice that my doctor wouldn't have delivered my baby.

    It was really important to me to find a doctor with really low intervention rates.

    He had one other doctor in his practice, but unless one was sick/out of town, they deliver all of their own patients.

    At least in a practice with only one or two other doctors you can meet them.

     

    When it actually came time to deliver, the president could have been catching him and I wouldn't have known.

      The lead up to delivery was different though, I was so much calmer knowing my doctor was supportive of my decision not to use meds.  

    I agree with you. The doctor I currently see is the one who will deliver my baby, unless he is sick or out of the island. Not very comfortable with a doctor who I have never met before delivering my baby. I chose him as my doctor for a reason. Basically he's always on call. Midwife will call him to come to the hospital at the appropriate time.

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  • My Drs office is the same way.  He is at the hospital on Mondays and Fridays.  He is at the office all the other times and I guess they rotate on weekends.  They tell everyone upfront that due to illnesses, vacations, conferences, and well delivering other babies and working at their office there is no way they can guarantee that your Dr will be  the one to deliver your baby.  I am only 26 weeks along, but during the next few months I will meet with every Dr in the practice.  This way none of them will be a stranger.  I am ok with it.  I like my doctor for other reasons than just labor and delivery.  He has a very calm demeanor ( which is good for a worry wart like me), very informative and cauttious but still puts me at ease.  I feel like I can approach with any question. 

    Anyways, I am having a scheduled c-section so he will be doing the surgery.  My sister has the same doctor, but someone else did end up delivering her baby.  Again, she knew this up front and was fine with it. 

  • With my first kid, my OB was part of a group of 8 other doctors.  And it just so happened that I went into labor Sunday night and DS was born Monday morning.  So after all that time, my OB wasn't the one who delivered.  But honestly, it didn't matter.  I probably saw the doc for all of 15 minutes.  She came in, checked how far along I was.  Then left.  I started pushing at some point then was told to stop because the doc hadn't come back to my room yet.  And then she came, I delivered the baby, she sewed me up and was gone.  I spent more time with the labor nurse than I did with the OB.  Although, first hting in the morning, just as I was being wheeled from the delivery room to my pp room, my actual OB came to check on me.  She actually went and checked on DS first and then came to me.  

    Now this time around there's only one OB.  She has someone cover for her during those just-in-case times.  But 99% of the time she's the one that delivers.   

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  • I feel super lucky to be a special snowflake, but my doctor has been through so much w/ me in the last year and half that she has taken me as a "private" patient despite normal protocol to rotate through the other 6 doctors in the practice. She says she wants to be there for my delivery and to have L&D call her directly, not the on-call doctor. I still worry a little that something will come up, like she'll be in a delivery at another hospital. But for now, I am counting on her to be there. 

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  • For my first pregnancy, I started out seeing a practice with 11 OBs who would rotate on-call.  You would see a nurse practitioner for most of your prenatal care and then some OB you barely knew or maybe never even met would show up to catch the baby.  I knew I wanted to know my doctor, so I switched to a practice with 2 OBs.  This time I am also seeing a very small practice.  I wouldn't feel comfortable just having some on-call doc I didn't know show up.
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  • my doctor has specific days she's at the hospital and certain times she's on call. so if i fall in that range, or if i end up having to be scheduled for some reason, she'll be the one to deliver. she sat me down a while back and explained how it all worked and said they've done the numbers and there's basically a 65% chance she'll be the one to deliver.

    i don't completely understand the OBs who can guarantee that they will be there. does it mean that they have a high rate of canceling on women going in for their monthly visits because they have to drop everything to go deliver a baby?

     

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  • I am at a practice with 4 drs that I have met and would be comfortable with them delivering DD.  If my Dr is on-call or in the office she will be the one delivering if it is the weekend/night I get whomever is on-call. 
  • Mine is whoever is on call - However, we only have four doctors in the practice. Our office makes you see all four doctors at least once during the 9 mos, so you at least know each one. There is one doctor I have only seen once, the rest I have seen multiple times.
  • my OB with DD had a practice of 4 - whoever was on call delivered, but she came to check on you that day (if you deliver early) or the next. after you hit 30 or 32 weeks you rotated to meet the remaining 3 OBs that could potentially deliver your baby. 

    my current OB is on call 24/7 and will be the delivering OB.

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  • My ob/gyn office has I believe 6 doctors, but I don't know how many of them deliver babies (some of them specialize in elder woman issues). If my ob is unavailable, one of his associates will be there.  I have never met any of them (but apparently one of them as a college friend of my uncle). 

    It doesn't really bother me.  The ob is really only there for the catching part anyway.  My dr just said that if I talk to someone else when I call about potential labor, to make sure they are aware of my issues (distance from hospital and on blood thinners).  Don't rely on them to pull up my file right away while on the phone in the middle of the night.  

    ETA: I don't like the practice of rotating you through all the doctors during the pregnancy.  I prefer to have one person who is thoroughly familiar with my specific issues to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.  I know my doctor knows who I am and what is going on because he's mentioned running into my specialist at the hospital and conferring with him about his recommendations for my post-delivery meds.  If I'd been rotating between all the doctors, no one would have been able to recall me that specifically.

  • At mine, it is whoever is on call.  There are only 3 docs in the practice though, so the chances are pretty good.  I am comfortable with all three though.
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