When will you/NB see your pediatrician?

branmuffin2112 · February 2013

We are delivering at a birth center and our MW said we can wait up to 3 days to see a pedi but we interviewed with a pedi today he was pretty adamant about seeing baby less than 24 hours after birth.

Thoughts? Advice?

pinksweetpea2 · February 2013

My pediatrician office was the same way...they just don't realized that many MWs are trained to perform all of the newborn exams, etc and in the first couple of days they are pretty much redundant as long as the baby is healthy and doing well.

I just waited to call them when I was ready to go in. She was born on Sunday, I called on Thursday and took her in on Friday. They were like, oh! She looks great. LOL Duh.

principessa81 · February 2013

I was wondering the same thing. My midwife says she prefers that the newborn babies not go to the pediatrician's office until they're two weeks old, but my son's pedi said that they will want to see the baby no more than two days after he or she is born.

iris427 · February 2013

Our home birth was with a doctor so he did the initial newborn exam at the birth and came back within the first 48 hours to check on us again. I think we went to the pediatrician's 3 or 4 days postpartum because that was just when they had time. I didn't want to wait too long, especially since I wanted to get the heel prick and hearing screen done. I think the heel prick is important and should be done sooner rather than later.

I don't understand the rationale behind PP's midwife recommending a 2 week wait to take the baby in.

vintagejjane · February 2013

Our Pedi used to deliver at home births, so he asked us to come in around 5 days. Our MW saw DD at birth, 24 hours after, then 48 hours after.

headgear03 · February 2013

All my kids didn't see the pedi till two months after. With the exception of my oldest for thrush who saw the doc at two weeks. My midwife comes everyday for the first week then three times a week for two weeks following then once to twice a week till six weeks pp. Most if the doctors here don't really care much. We also have no actual pedis in my town there all nurse practitioners and a few family doctors .

principessa81 · February 2013

iris427:
I don't understand the rationale behind PP's midwife recommending a 2 week wait to take the baby in.

Yeah, I don't really understand it either; she didn't really give me a good reason as to WHY I should wait that long, just that she said she could do the newborn screening tests, and she will see me and baby 24 hours pp. Honestly though, a 2-week wait is longer than I'm comfortable with.

Lariah14 · February 2013

BreanneL24:
smsalat:
DD was born in hospital at 9:32pm....pediatrician was there in our room at 7:00am for initial visit....he then came in the next morning to discharge.nbsp; We then had to go in on Friday, because of concern of weight loss....well, she almost lost a pound in that short amount of time, because my milk never came in he was monitoring her weight both days prior to friday and thankfully I started to give her Formula Wed night, because the doc said she started to turn jaundice which I felt like the worst mom.nbsp; I would say the sooner the better, because you just never know.nbsp;
If your baby is starving you will absolutely know and jaundice is pretty common. My milk came in but I only produced a couple drops max due to IGT and I knew that DS wasn't getting enough because all he did was scream. I didn't need the pedi to tell me that although he did tell me that and that supplementing was required.

maybe in your case, but if your baby won't wake up to eat, much less cry, you might just think you hit the baby lotto with a "good" baby.... Not that your baby could have feeding issues or such severe jaundice that is why they sleep all day/night and are failure to thrive. Jaundice is common, but you can't tell if its at a dangerous level just by looking and it shouldn't be blown off just because its common. And a newborns blood sugar can drop very quickly and they can become dehydrated even faster, before its obvious there is a problem.

SunnyMuffin · February 2013

In canada midwives look after mom/baby until 6 weeks postpartum and my midwife told me to take my baby to see a doctor at 6 weeks.

She also came to my house on the 2nd day and did his heel prick test then

A37licia · February 2013

Yeah, most are adamant about 24 hours and I was just not seeing us getting in the car after our homebirth! If something came up in the midwives' exam that warranted an earlier visit, we would have absolutely gone in sooner. I agree that a lot of the checks are redundant. Our doc, an ND, was cool with coming in within two weeks. I think we went in at ten days, partly because of the healing I was facing with some tearing. We also had at least one home visit from the midwife maybe on the 3rd day, and I checked in with the ND by email in that time. I actually can't even remember when the PKU was done, but it was taken care of in a timely manner.

We actually had to go to a hospital for the hearing screening, I think we did that around 1 month of age. Wore her in the sling the whole time, sleeping.

aylafsu88 · March 2013

smsalat:
DD was born in hospital at 9:32pm....pediatrician was there in our room at 7:00am for initial visit....he then came in the next morning to discharge. We then had to go in on Friday, because of concern of weight loss....well, she almost lost a pound in that short amount of time, because my milk never came in (he was monitoring her weight both days prior to friday) and thankfully

Same here. I delivered at a hospital and the pedi came by 2X to check on LO. I also went in for weight checks the first week.

tokenhoser · March 2013

Here, midwives cover newborn care to 6 weeks.

I deliver with a family doctor, so baby's doctor will be there at the birth.

NoeliaV · March 2013

We saw a pedi twice while we were in the hospital, and then our pedi on the Monday following her birth (Sat). Had we not left the hospital earlier than 48hrs, we would have seen our pedi on Tuesday (2 days post-discharge). The earlier visit was a condition of our release, lol.

ETA: They wanted us in that early due to her jaundice and my GBS+ status during the fast L&D. There was confusion about whether or not I got the full dose of antibiotics. smh.

nosoup4u · March 2013

Both of mine were hospital births. DS2 saw one of the hospital doctors before we left, so he was 24-48 hours old, and then we took him to our family doctor at like a week or so.

I would probably take the baby in within 48 hours. Does the pediatrician know you're having a birth center birth? Can they come and see the baby there?

branmuffin2112 · March 2013

nosoup4u:

Both of mine were hospital births. DS2 saw one of the hospital doctors before we left, so he was 24-48 hours old, and then we took him to our family doctor at like a week or so.

I would probably take the baby in within 48 hours. Does the pediatrician know you're having a birth center birth? Can they come and see the baby there?

He does know that we are delivering at the birth center but we are allowed to leave 4-6 hours after birth (which he didn't like...he said they shouldn't "kick" women out). The MW's will do the initial exams as PP have mentioned. I'm fine with taking our guy in by 48 hours, just curious what others were experiencing.

Also, we decided not to use this particular pedi anyway. He was very unsupportive about our decision to give birth at the birth center and delay vac's. He also tried to make me feel like an idiot for wanting to use coconut oil as nipple cream, for craddle cap and diaper rash cream (since we're CDing). So off to find a new pedi

tokenhoser · March 2013

Coconut oil works great for all those things.

Ask your midwife for a referral.

LaurelBee · March 2013

My MW did DDs newborn procedure at home. And came back for the heel prick at 24hrs. I delivered on Saturday and brought her to the pedi on Monday. My pedi is not a supporter of HBs and requested/demanded to see her within 24hrs. I lucked out to deliver on a weekend!

Haley.Beth · March 2013

intheflowers:
The mws provided care for baby for the first six weeks: assessments, blood tests, hearing screen, everything. We saw the pedi at two months.

This. My midwife will provide prenatal care for six weeks assuming baby is healthy, including all testing. We won't see the pediatrician until it's time for lo's two month vaccinations.

pixieprincss · March 2013

We had DS2 with a CPM. They provided care for baby and I until 6 weeks PP, but we decided to go see our FP Dr at about 2 weeks to get the heel prick test done (required by the state, and we elected to not do it with the MW to save money). If we have more kids, who are healthy and born out of a hospital, we will skip the visit. Our MW did comprehensive baby exams at birth, 2 days, 2 weeks, and 6 weeks. Also, the lab wasn't used to getting blood from a NB since most babies have that one at the hospital and it was painful to be a part of. We went from peaceful, gentle care with a MW to our well-meaning but had nothing else to add Dr to a kind but fumbling lab tech.

StefandTodd · March 2013

I didn't bring my home birth baby in until he was 3 weeks old. I felt confident that my MW knew enough to confirm he was healthy before that.

Want a personalized experience?

When will you/NB see your pediatrician?

Re: When will you/NB see your pediatrician?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards