Does your OBGYN work weekends? What happens if you go into labor on a weekend?

enairda08 · February 2012

I happened to learn today that my OBGYN is on a rotating on-call schedule with the other OBs in their practice, and should I go into labor on a weekend when she is not on call, that I will be treated by the on-call OB. I have no earthly idea how i failed to ask this question at my first visit, but i did. Is this common ladies? I will ask if she is on call the weekend prior to my due date, since I have GD and she said i may be induced early...perhaps she can induce me before the weekend? Should I at least ask to meet the other doctors in case they deliver me? My OB is highly desired and the Chief of Obstetrics at our hospital, which was a factor in selecting her. The other OBs in her practice are men...just not sure how to feel about it all, and was curious if any of you ladies have had or know of a similar situation as this? (I plan to discuss all of this with her at next week's appointment).

nopegoat · February 2012

This is how it works at my hospital as well. With my first I went to the hospital at 3am and the on call OB (whom I never met nor heard of) was there. Honestly I didn't care. I wanted my epi and I wanted my son in my arms. My Dr's shift started about 20 mins before I delivered my son.

If it does bother you, I would definitely talk with her about it and see what she would suggest doing. Good luck! I hope it works out for you!

SoxGirl0205 · February 2012

I see one of the best perinatologists in our region however.the downfall to that is that I am at a teaching hospital and he is a Senior Professor of Maternal/Fetal Medicine as well so that means he has about 10 residents that rotate on call, because of my complications and preterm labor I know most of them so when I do actually deliver the odds of me having a resident on call that I know is pretty high but I still wish my ACTUAL doctor could deliver me.

If the "male" thing bothers you I would defintely talk to her about it, I hope everything works out and you are comfortable with your doctor during your birth experience.

HopefulJen · February 2012

This is very common. I'm about to start rotating through all the doctors in the practice since there is no telling who will actually deliver your baby. I am not concerned at all. The doctor isn't there very long, the nurses are what really matter.

vanillacourage · February 2012

Very common. Doctors aren't robots, they need time to sleep and go to the grocery store and have time with their families. They can't be available 24/7. Schedule your next few appts with other doctors in the practice if it will make you feel more comfortable.

sunnyday016 · February 2012

This is how our hospital is. If he's not working while I am there then one of the other OBs will deliver me.

learningfromlife · February 2012

My OB did not deliver my oldest, I got an on call OB from some other practice because of how that hospitals on call schedule worked out.

I asked my MW how likely she is to be there for the birth and she said she goes in even when she's not on call because she likes to be there for all her patients births. She told me there is a small chance something could come up, but usually unless she's off on vacation she is present for 99% of her births.

Monicagail1 · February 2012

That's how my OB practice works as well, although all of the OBs are women. They give you the option to see just one doctor throughout your pregnancy, but advise you that you may be delivered by another doctor. Over my last two pregnancies I have rotated through the doctors for my visits and gotten to know most of them, which is usually recommended.

I wouldn't worry too much though. Honestly, the doctor mostly comes in at the end just to "catch". You will spend the majority of your time with the L&D nurse, and maybe a resident so the odds are even if your doctor is on call you'll be mostly working with someone you don't know anyway.

WildcatPrincess · February 2012

This is why we meet all the MWs in the practice, you never know who's going to be on call when you go in to deliver!

ADub09 · February 2012

My OB is on rotation with 15 other OBs at the hospital we will deliver at ~ so there is no knowing who will deliver, I have worked with 2 OBs on that rotation.

joshandpanda · February 2012

I have seen all 4 doctors that are in the office I go to, and I am very comfortable with all of them (one more than the others, but if she isn't available, what do you do right?).

It would be best to see the other doctors there just in case.

Pdxmom73 · February 2012

Super common! With DS1 my Ob was all I saw and he ended up being able to do my csection because we scheduled it as such. With DS2 it was the same however I saw all the women in the practice just in case DS2 decided to come on his own time. This way I had seen them all at least once. This time around I will schedule again but have a simple pregnancy and dont mind seeing another doc. They have to have time off. They cant work around the clock everyday. Ask to have a meet you type appt with the other docs so its not a shock if it happens.

mrs+harlow · February 2012

Very common. There are three other OB's in my doctor's practice and I have rotated through meeting them all. Obviously, I want my OB to deliver my baby but she's not a robot and entitled to a life.

If you are scheduled to be induced your doctor will schedule it so that she is the doctor that would be handling it. But inductions sometimes take a while and into the next day so ask her how that would be handled.

walkerb4 · February 2012

That's how it usually works, yes. That's why most practices rotate who you see so you'll know all of the doctors.

Moneypenny424 · February 2012

raecammenga:
Very common. My OB practice is set up the same way. Think about it... If you were a doctor, you wouldn't be able to be on call for your patients all day, every day. Your doc has to have some time off to rest and not have to worry abou her work life, otherwise she would be spread too thin as a person, and then she wouldn't be good at her job!
If it makes you feel more comfortable to try to meet some of the other staff, then by all means, schedule some of your appointments with them. But there is still a possibility that you might not have a chance to meet every single doctor in the practice.
Personally, I am just preparing myself that my OB probably won't be available for my delivery. That way I can be pleasantly surprised if she happens to be on call at the time.
As for doctors being male, I know it makes some people feel awkward, but try to keep in mind that this is his job. You are likely not the first half-naked, sweaty, childbearing woman he has seen in action! He should view this event in your life as a standard medical occurrence, so just go with it. If a man thought it was too gross or too weird, he would not last long in that line of work.

Exactly. Honestly, I've never heard of it being any other way. Doctors can't work every day (you wouldn't want to be their patients if they did), so this will happen.

cjevar · February 2012

Yeah that is normal, I am at a practice with 2 dr's and a PA so every appointment they rotate so I have seen all of them, I like that they do this I got to know all of them and then I won't be surprised when I am at the hospital.

n8swife · February 2012

I've heard this is very common, although my OB is different. He is also our family doctor and has been since I was in middle school. He has a small practice and will be delivering our baby. He's on call 24/7 except for the two times a year that he goes on vacation..which is in the summer and fall so we don't have to worry about that! He lives within minutes of the hospital so the nurses will call him once I'm ready to push and he'll be there to catch baby! If I need a c-section for some reason, he cannot perform it so another doctor will be doing that, but he'll be there for the procedure and to check out the baby afterwards. I don't know how common this is but I love that he is my OB because he knows all of my medical history and has delivered other babies in my family. Plus, he is an awesome doctor!

2chatter · February 2012

Common - but was indeed a factor in my scheduling an induction for after I hit 40 weeks - which was NOT in the plan. The OB who would be on call for the five days before I hit 41 weeks is a woman with three children who views her call time as an intrusion on "her time with her family". Not interested in having her deliver my baby, so opted to have my OB deliver (I have two children, and have had two medically mandated inductions after my water broke each time with 0 progress, so at least I know what to expect....)

greeneyed_bride · February 2012

Moneypenny424:
raecammenga:
Very common. My OB practice is set up the same way. Think about it... If you were a doctor, you wouldn't be able to be on call for your patients all day, every day. Your doc has to have some time off to rest and not have to worry abou her work life, otherwise she would be spread too thin as a person, and then she wouldn't be good at her job!
If it makes you feel more comfortable to try to meet some of the other staff, then by all means, schedule some of your appointments with them. But there is still a possibility that you might not have a chance to meet every single doctor in the practice.
Personally, I am just preparing myself that my OB probably won't be available for my delivery. That way I can be pleasantly surprised if she happens to be on call at the time.
As for doctors being male, I know it makes some people feel awkward, but try to keep in mind that this is his job. You are likely not the first half-naked, sweaty, childbearing woman he has seen in action! He should view this event in your life as a standard medical occurrence, so just go with it. If a man thought it was too gross or too weird, he would not last long in that line of work.
Exactly. Honestly, I've never heard of it being any other way. Doctors can't work every day (you wouldn't want to be their patients if they did), so this will happen.

Actually, there are some excellent doctors who are on call every day. Mine is one of them. She is definitely in the minority, but doctors who have their own practice (rather than being in practice with other OBs) often practice this way. Because she is the only doctor in the practice, she's the only one on call. However, she keeps her patient list intentionally small in order to be able to do this. The last two times I've had appointments with her, I've heard the receptionist tell someone on the phone that she's not currently accepting new patients. I actually talked to her about how she makes it work, and she said that because her patient list is small, things tend to "balance out" in terms of her getting time to herself. Sometimes she ends up having to spend a lot of "after hours" time in the hospital, and other times she'll have few or no deliveries for a few weeks.

But to answer the OP - almost all OBs practice the way yours does. If they're in a practice with other doctors, it only makes sense that they share on-call duties.

CourtneyM09 · February 2012

Yes, this is similar to what I have and will experience. At any given point, one of the 5 doctors at my OBGYN practice are on call at the local hospital. As I progress through my pregnancy, it is a requirement that I see every doctor in the practice and then once I get toward the end, I will then only see my doctor again. I think, at this point, I only have 2 more doctors to rotate through, and then I get back to my dr. for the rest of the pregnancy. This way, you get familiar with all the dr.'s in the practice and vice versa. With DD, I ended up with a dr. other than my own at delivery, and it was fine because I had seen him before...although of course you always prefer your own.

CourtneyM09 · February 2012

HopefulJen:
This is very common. I'm about to start rotating through all the doctors in the practice since there is no telling who will actually deliver your baby. I am not concerned at all. The doctor isn't there very long, the nurses are what really matter.

yes, and this!

FormerlyKrista555 · February 2012

I different doctor than my OB delivered my DD. No big deal. The nurses do the hard work and the doctor just comes in at the end and gets the glory.

ae4245 · February 2012

Very common, both the practice I am with now and the one with DD were setup this way. I however changed to the one I am with now b/c of this exact dilemma. With DD I never met any of the other doctors and ended up having someone I had never even heard of deliver my DD (there was over 10 in the practice). He was excellent, but it did rub me the wrong way. The practice I am with now there are just 3 doctors and I've met them all so in case of a last minute surprise I feel comfortable. I'd ask to meet them if it makes you uneasy.

melrrr · February 2012

Ours is this way, except the practice does not rotate who you see. I have actually only met one other OB/gyn in the practice in my 8 years of going there, and he did my NT. If I go into labor on a weekend, it may not be my doctor, but I really don't care about that. A bunch of nurses I've never met are the ones who spend the most time with me, so it won't bother me if another doctor is there for the birth. With my last one, I delivered at midnight on a weekday, so mine was there.

Angel002 · February 2012

With my OB I page him when I'm having contractions 4-5 mins a part. He gives me the go ahead to head to the hospital. They montior me there and they contact him to let him know my status (last time I wasn't dialating more than 3 cm). When I start dialating they let him know and somehow get him to the hospital right when I'm about to deliver. It seems the nurses and everyone else checks me until delivery.

I don't know when that man sleeps because he's there to deliver, he's there in the morning to check on me (post partum) he's in the office (during the week) all day to see patients, then after his office closes he goes and checks on me again. Poor thing always looks tired.

ETA: Oh wow, reading thru the responses I must be really lucky then. My OB has delivered both of my previous boys and the only time he almost wasn't there was with my first when he was going on vacation, but my son came before he left. Haha.

cdc1982 · February 2012

That's how my OB's practice is. But, my OB is a guy so doesn't bother me if it's a male or female. There's 5 docs in the practice & I've met them all. Last time, I had my doc but I had to set up an induction & they did it for the day he was there. This time, dunno who I'll have!

enairda08 · February 2012

Thank you ladies! I do feel more comfortable now, after reading your posts and hearing this is so common.

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Does your OBGYN work weekends? What happens if you go into labor on a weekend?

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