Intro & another post about Kaiser midwives (sorry)

Sarahcakes29

Hi gals,

First of all, I'm so glad to find an Oregon board.  I'm from Portland/Eugene, left for the past three years pursuing grad school and a job in California and am now moving back home 24 weeks into my pregnancy.  I'm 28, pregnant with my first and just found out we're having a boy (!).  All of our family and friends are in Oregon and we're so glad to be coming home.  The move has been stressful (and my goodness, Portland rent has gone up considerably since I last lived there in 2004!) but I'm really looking forward to being home.  We move in to our new house in SE (Lents-ish) in one week - I can hardly wait.

I will be starting with Kaiser (and possibly continue throughout my delivery) and noticed a few posts below mentioning recommendations for Kaiser midwives.  Today I called to set up my first appointment and was offered multiple appointments with Mary Craft; since it didn't sound like you all had good experiences with her I asked for a different provider and got set up with a Susan Gervosi?  Any thoughts on her?

Excited to meet you all on this board and get back home!

jenypdx

Hi Sarah, Welcome back to Portland! I am 29, also live in inner SE and 21 weeks pregnant with my second son. I work at Kaiser and also am a Kaiser member. I have enjoyed my midwife- will have to get her name for you.. can't think of it at the moment. The clinic is interstate, so if your heading there, i will send you a follow up email.

Hope to meet you soon. I am going to try to attend the meeting that is being planned for August.

Good luck on the move. Are you looking for work in PDX?

Sarahcakes29

Hi Jeny, thanks for the welcome back.  You & I are so close in our pregnancies; I'm assuming you're due the first/second week of December?  I'm due November 29th.  I also work for Kaiser in Northern California and will be looking for work once we get settled.  Glad to hear you've had good experiences; I love my doctor here and am sorry to have to switch providers.  She used to work as a Kaiser OB (though in Vancouver) but had great things to say about her experiences with the KP team there and Sunnyside Medical Center. 

I will see if we have time to meetup and check the board for details...would love to connect with more Portland moms!

jenypdx

Hi! I am due Dec 10th with a boy. Super stuck on names.. So hard this time around. What do you do for Kaiser ? I work in HR at the Corp office near Downtown PDX. I look forward to connecting with the moms too. I would love to get a group of people together that have similar aged children and interests. I have a great group of friends BUT they dont' have kids.

 I will send a reply to Jen on the GTG post to see where we are at in planning.

Sarahcakes29

Jeny...sending you a private message. 

Sarahcakes29

*sigh*  I officially suck at TheBump and haven't yet figured out how to write a private message.  I'll have to do some research on that.  In the meantime, since you work in HR and I am actively applying for jobs, I probably shouldn't give any more specifics about my job field and all.   I will say that I have had great experiences there with the HR recruiter so I'm sure you work with a good group.   

I will definitely check the board for a get together and look forward to checking out the Oregon board more. 

jenypdx

HI, I'll try to send you a message and see if it works that way.

lynzianne

I also wanted to say I am having my 3rd at Kaiser and I for Kaiser. I work in the operating room so I know a good majority of the drs and from previous experience I have seen a number of the midwives.  To the best of my knowledge Susan Gervasi is not a midwife but a NP who can only see you until about 32 weeks and then you have to see a midwife or MD, she is also a breastfeeding specialist.  If you have any questions I am happy to help the best I can  Also, if you didn't know, when you actually go into labor you will have whoever the midwife is that is on call and it can be from like 20 of the midwives, unless you are a high risk pregnancy or c-section and then you will get the MD.  

slmatthews23

I live in Salem, but when I first got pregnant they were going to make me wait if I wanted an appointment in Salem, so I went to Portland. I got Susan Gervosi and she was wonderful! She was helpful and answered all my questions. She did tend to get a bit focused and it seemed like she forgot we were there, but she was great on follow - up care, even though I was in Salem.