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Natural Birth
welly01
member
Dr.'s office with 4 OB's - not being delivered by my OB
welly01
member
I am a FTM and I've decided that for my own piece of mind I prefer to be in a hospital. I didn't easily find a midwife who would deliver at my local hospitals, so I went ahead and chose an OB. Before I even got pregnant, I interviewed her and felt that she would respect my wishes of going natural. Not really as pro-natural as a midwife, but enough to my satisfaction. She has two associates that are male and for some reason, I just really, really do not want to be delivered by a male doctor (never had a male GYN). Also, if I discuss with her my wishes for when/if an episiotomy will be performed and all the other details of labor, what is the point if she won't even be the one to deliver me? Can anyone offer encouragement regarding multiple doctor's that might deliver you? Is it possible to hope that they actually discuss their patients with each other?
BFP #1 3/2/12, T born 11/7/12
BFP #2 7/2/14, CP 7/6/14
BFP #3 8/28/14, MMC 10/2/14 @ 9wks - misoprostol 10/6/14, D&C 11/3/14 for retained tissue
BFP #4 12/25/14, EDD 9/7/15 - please stick baby, you are so loved and wanted!!!!!
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Re: Dr.'s office with 4 OB's - not being delivered by my OB
I think the most important thing is to meet all the docs. The practice I go to has two midwives and a male OB--you only end up with the OB if there's an emergency, but at first the thought of a male OB weirded me out a little (though I figured in an emergency I probably wouldn't care anymore lol). After meeting him I felt much better.
I'm sure she's noting all the info in your chart, so that others can refer to it too, but I'd ask her what the MO for this is. Should you, for instance, write up a birth plan that can go in your file for anyone to access? If she's not available, will she brief the OB who is on you, or will the info she's included in your file be enough? I'm sure you'll feel much better after talking this over with her.
Well, if it's important to you to be delivered by your own doctor, you have to seek out someone that tries to do that. I went with my family doctor, and she delivers about 90% of her own babies. It's easier for her to accomplish that than an OB because most of her patients aren't delivering babies, so it's not as big of a burden to try to attend the births of those that are.
I will say that I was stitched up by a male OB, and while I wouldn't choose a male doctor for my every day business, I really didn't care who he was at that moment. He could have been green with purple polka dots and I may not have noticed.
If you stick where you are, then you are in a situation where you need a clear birth plan and good people with you in the delivery room to advocate for what you want. I'd highly recommend a doula.
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This exactly. I asked this question to my OB when we first met. This is my first male OB/Gyn and to be honest, I thought it would bother me but it really doesn't bother me at all. I am really comfortable with him and he is very supportive of my natural/no intervention birth plan. The only reason he wouldn't be there would be if he had been on call for so many hours and felt it was unsafe for him to deliver. He makes being there a priority for his first time moms especially.
He mentioned to me that if for some crazy reason, he wasn't there, that I was to stick to my guns about my birth plan and to call his nurses/track him down if the OB on call wasn't jiving with my plan and that he would talk to them personally.
I also agree with having a doula. We have one, who has worked with my OB before, so they know each other. Our doula's fee is $500 but while she is not an advocate for me, she will help me to voice my desires during labor in the case that my OB can't be there.
I personally think good nurses are important. My doctor did not really do anything until the baby was ready to be born. He also delivered the placenta. That was it. Otherwise the nurses got me through labor and delivery.
I must say I was a little sad when my OB said he wasn't going to be able to stick around for my delivery...but I knew the other people in his group on a professional level so I wasn't too worried and everyone respected my wishes to try for a natural birth and allowed me to hang at 8 cm for 5 hrs before suggesting we try the epidural, which by that point, I was more than ready for myself. And since I ended up needing a c-section, guess who was on back up call for c-section assists...my doctor! So in the end, he did the surgery with the 1st on call doctor assisting. I laughed and told him that I guess my baby and body really wanted him there to do the delivery. Mind you, I would have been perfectly happy having a vaginal delivery with the on call doctor but it wasn't meant to be.
If it's very important that your doctor be the one, either see what can be worked out or switch to someone who is in solo practice or can tell you that he/she delivers >90% of their own patients.
My birth center has several midwives. Of course they all have their master's degrees, as all CNM's have done graduate level coursework after becoming RN's. Mine, who helped to found the place and whose knowledge and experience are unmatched by her colleagues, is only on call 1 night per week. And I'm due Christmas day, so guess who is probably NOT going to be on call over the holidays??
I don't think they do discuss their patients cases in depth. I think they each manage their caseloads to get a consistency of care in the prenatal period. That way, they know what's going on throughout your pregnancy and things don't slip through the cracks or need to be gone over. The delivery itself, for a low-risk, uncomplicated case, should be fairly standard. In my mind, having one person following up with you throughout gives a nice continuity, but it's unrealistic to expect that they will deliver their entire caseload.
Last time, I was in another state, and my midwives rotated. I met 4 of the 6, and I ended up having my two favorite ones on shift over the course of the 2 days I was in labor. That was a beautiful thing, but it could easily have worked out differently. The other thing was, there were a couple of minor details that I needed to hound the office about, and one minor mistake that was made that basically exposed me to a little bit more risk during labor, I think because she busy with keeping my chart straight and not hearing exactly what I was saying.