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Necack
member
Natural birth at Forbes Regional?
Necack
member
Hi everyone! I'm hoping to have a natural unmedicated birth. I'm currently seeing the East Suburban OB/GYN practice and they only work with Forbes which I was originally excited about, but now that I've been researching and saw their c/s rate, I'm growing more and more nervous about how accepting they are of what I will be looking for. Has anyone had any experience with birthing here or with these OBs? Do they listen to you or do they try to push interventions on you knowing you want to avoid them as much as possible? If I have to switch OBs or hospitals, I want to do it soon. I've had a positive experience with my OBs so far, but I'm not sure how things will be for delivery or what the hospital staff nurses and such will be like. How cooperative are they?
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Re: Natural birth at Forbes Regional?
I also go to East Suburban and had my daughter at Forbes 19 months ago. I never had any issues with the OB's pushing anything. I was 1 week late, so I did go in to be induced. The induction was a miserable failure, but I'm not sure that's the hospitals fault.
The cervidil didn't change anything and after 8 hours of pitocin, still no change. I told the nurses from the beginning I didn't want any pain medication. They were very good about not pushing me about that. Due to no dilation over 8 hours, the Dr on call (my favorite one) went over my options. My husband and I decided that the best thing was to get our daughter out, so we went with the c-section. The Dr never pushed that on us, it was our decision.
The best advice I can give is know what you want when you go in and stick to it. Make sure you have an advocate (significant other, friend, parent) know what you want and ask them to help in case you start wavering. The doctors and nurses respected what I had to say and basically did follow what I had in mind.
I am due with baby #2 in 10 days and will be trying for a VBAC. I'm hoping things might go differently this time around, but I trust the Dr's to do what's best for me and my baby. Hope this helps and good luck!
I had a baby at Forbes 3 weeks ago and East Suburban is my OB as well. The entire experience was great! I went in afraid of, and not wanting, an epidural, terrified of labor, horrified of delivery and mortified at the thought of what if we needed a c-section. After a couple hours of 2-5 minute contractions and the IV pain med wearing off, I asked for the epidural and they were very good about giving it to me. They did not push it beforehand. In fact, the nurses were VERY good and VERY nice (even though for the first day after delivery I used the call button a lot).
So to answer your question, the nurses and doctors that I had experience with were very cooperative and did not push anything on me regarding medications. However, I did have an emergency c-section. From the time my water broke, the nurse had told me there was meconium in the amniotic fluid (he pooped already) so they were monitoring him very closely due to risk of infection. My water broke at 2pm while I was actually in the maternity ward finishing a non-stress test.
The doctor came in at about 7:45pm and said they were monitoring his heart rate. It kept dropping and going up. She said if it did not stabilize in the next couple hours then we would have to do a c-section. His heart rate should be between 120-150. At 8:00pm the doctor came in again and said we were going in for an emergency c-section because his heart rate dropped again and did not immediately go back up. My husband looked at the screen and the baby's heart rate was 75. Immediately about 10 people were in the room and after I finished throwing up, they whisked me out of there.
Ben was born at 8:13pm. It turned out that his heart rate was so low because he was laying on the umbilical cord. Even though it was scary, I would not have had it go any other way. I am very pleased with EVERYTHING the nurses and doctors at Forbes did for us during labor, delivery and our stay afterwards. Good luck with your delivery, I hope everything goes well for you and your baby!
Settle in, I got LOTS to say....
I had a natural, un-medicated childbirth at Forbes with ESOBGYN. We aren't TTC again yet, but I don't plan to use them again. I felt the group was too big and I didn't really trust over half the OBs. Basically, I lucked out and my labor wasn't complicated and progressed well. BUT, every other mother I know that delivered there was induced. And ALL my friends use them. The only 3 births that were not induced (to begin with) were 1)my sister- she ended up with a c/s because her water broke and she didn't start contracting right off, Dr Pelekanos immediately told her he would be c/s-ing her in the end...he was very rude and arrogant. Her c/s was because of the typical "cascade" of interventions. They kept her strapped to a monitor and only let her walk every so often, she had an automatic IV too. The nurses she had were very rude. One was so rough with her when they were putting in the IV that she was in tears and begging for someone else. Then, they started pitocin. She was promised they would keep it low and slowly increase. 10 mins after they started it, the nurse came back in and jacked it up and my sister was in a LOT of pain. Instinctively (and correctly bc later she found our her baby was OP) she was trying to labor on her hands and knees and a nurse came in and told her that she needed to stop it and just lay down and relax..... so she did. She felt so bullied. Increase pit, she finally consented to the epidural, she dilated to 5c...but it was 930pm and DR P was getting pissy. A new nurse came on that my sister liked, and she kept assuring my sister that her baby had some dips in heart rate during labor but that it was all ok. Yes, the pit caused my sisters son to have dips in his heart rate, the nurse was arguing with DR P that it was normal, but he pulled my BIL aside and yelled that my sister was so stubborn that she was killing her son!! OMG, I still get fired up over that. So off they went to the OR. And then, even though my nephew was fine, they wouldnt even let her see him. They left him in the warmer while she was screaming to see him. Finally an intern grabbed their camera and snapped a pic so she could see him. Ok, person #2 that wasn't induced- my DH's friends wife. She did get some demerol in her IV but said it sucked..then she was ready to push and couldn't hold it in but..yet again, DrP was oncall and popped his head in and said "don't push, I gotta a c/s to do"...yeah, she said screw you and delivered anyways. SO when DrP came to stitch her up, he didn't numb her and was very rough. And #3) a friend of mine had an accidental unassisted home birth (I was there! on the phone with 911) and when she transfered to Forbes, DrP was super RUDE to her and very rough stitching her up. He was pissed she didn't make it to the hospital. I personally think he was pissed she was able to vaginally deliver a 9#11oz baby at home with no issues.
Honestly, I just hate Pelekanos. He is a c/s lover. I was going to stay home and risk an ambulance delivery if he was on call when I went into labor. We even called L&D when I was contracting regularly to see who was on call.
I really think I lucked out, because I stayed home as long as possible, went in after my water broke and I was contracting VERY regular. Arrived at almost 7cm and pushing phase was only 45 mins. It was a really busy night, all 11 L&D rooms had filled up (I got one of the last) and they were sending ppl to the overflow rooms. I did end up with an episiotomy...which it seems they do their routinely as well. I also had a very supportive nurse, luck of the draw I guess. I just don't want to take my chances there again...
I'm not trying to discourage you, but given that Magee has almost ALL high risk cases in the area, yet their c/s rate is lower than Forbes is telling...Last I heard, Forbes' c/s rate was pushing close to 40% That is UNACCEPTABLE! It is a shame, because the facility is very beautiful.
Now, I *might* go back to Forbes and use the Family Nurse Midwives group, they are affiliated with ESOBGYN though and there are only 2 of them and if they aren't on call, you get an OB from the group...I have to find out how often that happens.
I personally am very interested in The Midwife Center on penn ave.
Good luck and congrats.