Prenatal Care Transfer - advice needed!
missjenna84
member
Currently I am receiving my prenatal care at the Northcrest Women's Health Center in Springfield (my fiance's hometown) and Pleasant View, TN. I have been very happy with my doctor and the care I'm receiving there. The only problem is that we have to drive about 40-45 minutes to get there! I'm 22 weeks now and realizing that I need to make a decision about whether or not I want to have that much distance inbetween me and the hospital when I go into labor. If I don't stay with Northcrest, my plan has always been to give birth at Vanderbilt in Nashville (just about 15-20 minutes from our home in Nashville) - as they accept Tenncare patients. I did find out early on that if I went to Vanderbilt for my prenatal care, I would probably see a different doctor every time, which is why I chose to get the majority of my prenatal care at Northcrest (also where I had previously seen for gyn-care).
This is my dilemna now... more than likely I will chose the closer option, so, HOW and WHEN do I make that transfer? I have my next prenatal appointment set at Northcrest for September 7th and will be 25 weeks then. For some, this is the very beginning of the 3rd Trimester (and for others just 2-3 weeks shy of it). Would it be smart to start seeing the people at Vanderbilt for the following appointment? My fiance and I are signed up for a 5-week Childbirth class at Vanderbilt starting on October 10th, which would be right around the time of that appointment, but I would feel most comfortable if I could be somewhat familiar not only with the place, but the people there too. My family is scattered among the United States and my Mom passed away December of 2009, so any extra comfort I can get during that time will definitely help.
So, do any of you have any advice on this? Maybe there's a Mommy-to-be that has done the same thing or at least given birth at Vanderbilt before on TheBump? I know this will be something I will need to talk to my current doctor about at my next visit, but I'd just like to go into that appointment knowing what I want to do!
Thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated!
xo, Jenna
Re: Prenatal Care Transfer - advice needed!
If you haven't already taken a tour of Vanderbilt's L&D, I strongly suggest doing so. That way you will get a feel for how things are done there and whether you would be comfortable there. If you haven't already started making a birth plan (who you want to be with you while laboring and delivering, whether you want drugs or not, etc.), you should definitely start doing so. If you feel like Vanderbilt would be a good fit for your delivery, I would suggest transferring towards the middle to end of October, that way you have about 8-10 weeks of prenatal appointments there. If, however, you don't feel comfortable with going to Vanderbilt for delivery, I wouldn't be too concerned with the drive to Northcrest.
On a different topic, I am interested in which childbirth class you are taking. I did Hypnobabies and I can honestly say it was the best thing I did for my pregnancy and birth and myself in general. If you get the opportunity to take Hypnobabies, take it!
I delivered at Vanderbilt 2 weeks ago today and had a great experience. I started out seeing a midwife at the 100 oaks practice. For many reasons, I decided to switch to the Vanderbilt Nurse Midwives at the West End Women's Health Center at 26 weeks. 100 oaks was okay, but I loved the West End women's Health Center. I'm not sure why they told you you would see a different doctor each time... At 100 oaks they tried to keep my appointments with the same person, I only saw someone else if I had to reschedule an appointment. At West End you generally don't see the same person each time, but I actually liked that because when you go into labor whoever is on call is the one who delivers the baby and I felt comfortable with that because I had a chance to get to know several of the midwives during my prenatal visits. If you are thinking of transferring I would do it sooner rather than later so you have time to get to know the people and the policies there before your baby is due. If you have any more questions about Vanderbilt I would be happy to tell you more about my experience.
My husband and I took the 5 week childbirth class at Vanderbilt as well. We got a good overview of how things are done at Vanderbilt, so that should really help you. I think our tour was the 3rd week. All of the L&D nurses I had were really great. They and the midwives were very supportive of what I wanted and overall I had a great experience there!
We are currently signed up for the New Beginnings Prepared Childbirth 5 Week Course and they do give the class a tour of the Family Care Center (assuming that is where I'll go for labor?). I will definitely look into the Hypnobabies class though. I thin I have heard it recommended before actually! Thanks! Also, my fiance and I agreed that Septembers visit will be my last at Northcrest so starting in October at Vande will line up nicely!
I'm glad there's someone on TB who delivered at Vanderbilt and have a good experience to tell me about! One question though - why did you choose to see a mid-wife over regular doctors? Initially, I looked into getting a doula, but my fiance seemed to think it wouldn't be necessary (he wants to be my labor partner all and all) to spend the money to hire one - so I'm pretty interested to hear more about the Midwives at Vanderbilt! I will be grateful to hear anything and everything you've got to tell me about Vande and the programs there. I'm actually only lived in Tennessee for a little over 3 years now, so I am REALLY unfamiliar with the way things will work at Vanderbilt.
Oh, and it was someone in the billing department who said I would probably see someone different every visit.... but maybe he was talking about the Midwife program and I've got things mixed up? Not sure really.
I started seeing a midwife because that's who the first available appointment was with! When I found out I was pregnant I called to make an appointment (not having anyone in mind to see) and they asked if I preferred an OB or a midwife, I hadn't thought about it at all, so I just took the first available appointment, which was with a midwife. After that I started looking up information about midwives and the difference between them and OB's. The midwives at Vanderbilt do everything that the OB's do except surgery, so if you need a c-section a doctor would have to step in and do that, but otherwise the midwives do all of your prenatal care and everything at delivery. Midwives tend to have a better bedside manner than doctors and spend more time with you at each visit. They also spend much more time with you in labor. From what I've heard, when you're in labor you don't really see the doctor until you're ready to deliver, then the doctor comes and catches the baby, stitches you up if necessary and leaves. I was at Vanderbilt for about 8 hours before I delivered my baby and I probably had a midwife with me for 6-7 of those hours which was GREAT! I pushed for almost 4 hours and my midwife offered a lot of support and suggestions.
I think the stereotype about midwives is natural/home birth, but the midwives at Vaderbilt are fine if you want medication. I chose to go natural and they were also supportive of that and really helped me with it. One thing I liked about the West End midwives was they were much slower to do interventions than the midwife I was seeing at 100 oaks. I had some issues with blood pressure during my pregnancy and the 100 oaks midwife was quick to try a lot of medical interventions (for a while I was going to the office twice a week for tests) my blood pressure was not THAT high and it was very stable, so when I started seeing the other midwives they said all of those tests weren't necessary. They still monitored my BP closely and I still took medication for it because it can be very serious, but they said the problem wasn't as bad as 100 oaks had made me feel it was.
Another thing about 100 oaks vs. West End, it was very hard to reschedule appointments at 100 oaks. They had me schedule all of my appointments at one of my first visits so when 2-3 months later I needed to reschedule something, I had to call way in advance to be able to do it (once I called 6 weeks ahead to change an appointment and they didn't have anything open for 7 weeks). West End was much easier to schedule/reschedule with. Also, 100 oaks is HUGE and I liked that the West End office was much smaller.
At 100 oaks I saw the same midwife almost every visit until about 20 weeks, then I started seeing a different midwife there. At West End, I have a primary midwife but you see different midwives at each visit. Like I said before I actually liked that though, and you can always request who you want to see when you make an appointment. There were several times when I had an appointment with someone else that my primary midwife would call me later that day to follow up. They always took time to answer my questions and I felt like they listened to what I wanted and really helped give me the prenatal and birth experience that I was looking for.
That was really long, but I hope it was helpful! I can't recommend any OB's because I never saw any at Vanderbilt, but like I said, I really had a great experience with the midwives at the West End Women's Health Center and I would definitely recommend them!