Don't go into labor on the weekend? OB/midwife question.

emilyve · April 2014

I just moved to a new area and so I'm looking for a new midwife. I called all three of the offices in my area, and basically all of them said that one of the midwives in their office would be able to deliver me, unless I deliver on the weekend. Then it's just whoever happens to be on call at the the hospital. Forgive me if I'm ignorant, but is this normal??? I'm completely weirded out by the fact that if I happen to go into labor on the weekend, someone I have never met before will be delivering my baby.

Mrs.Leah.Maria · April 2014

Unfortunately it's very normal. I've been very lucky that my MW with my last two delivers all of her babies, until this past year, when the hospital hired another MW. They now split the week.

I don't let it really bother me too much though, as they deserve some resemblance of work life balance as well.

Irisheyes1247 · April 2014

With both my girls, I managed to get the OB I hadn't met from my practice yet, but they really aren't there for a lot of time. Now I am at a Midwifery practice, but it is the same - someone from the practice is always on call at the hospital, not necessarily the main person you see at your appointments, and that is who is there.

aliciak316 · April 2014

Yea it's normal. With the practice I go to there's like 6 doctors and it's just whoever is on call. They try and have to meet all the doctors before you deliver, with my daughter I met all but one and guess who delivered her! Trust me you won't care when it comes time you'll just want to get your baby out to snuggle with.

Mrs.Leah.Maria · April 2014

MermaidsMagic said:

I have a practice of 5 doctors, 2 NPs and 2 MWs, so I will not run into this problem. But really, the doctor is only in there for the final stage of labor, and to occsaionally check on you. You'll be with your nurses most of the time. My OB came in 4 times the 40 hours I was in labor. First time to check me and ask if I wanted my epi yet, to check me again to tell me to start pushing, to let me know that Ella was stuck and I had 30 more minutes to push before I needed a c/s and he said hi before he started the C/S.

If you feel uncomfortable with this, you might want to look into a doula.

My experience with my MW (and births that I've photographed with MWs) is that they are in the room the majority of the birth. Whereas with DS1 delivered with the OB on call, who never made it in time for the birth, I was with my amazing L&D nurse the entire time. The OB only made it to stitch me up.

If there are no on call weekend MW, I'd second you into looking into a doula.

Mrs.Leah.Maria · April 2014

MermaidsMagic said:

Mrs.Leah.Maria said:
My experience with my MW (and births that I've photographed with MWs) is that they are in the room the majority of the birth. Whereas with DS1 delivered with the OB on call, who never made it in time for the birth, I was with my amazing L&D nurse the entire time. The OB only made it to stitch me up.

I don't think I'd like that. I didn't even like when the nurses were in the room a lot. I liked laboring with just DH and occasionally my mom when Dh went to take a little break to eat because I would have snatched the sandwich out of his hands.

I'm not making a commentary on MWs, I'm just sharing thoughts.

I totally understand. I had a nurse with DS2 that I wanted gone, but my MW on the other hand I had no problem with her being in the room. With DD though, I felt a sort of expectation from my MW to have a fast labor like with DS2 and she totally picked up on it and left us alone a little more.

ETA: It doesn't mean they are constantly monitoring you or asking questions, just that they're present.

It's making me laugh though, one birth that I attended the MW fell asleep in the rocking chair!

GlitterMuffin914 · April 2014

Yes, this is totally normal. Their midwives can't be on call 24/7. My practice is similar to the one someone mentioned above with a couple OBs and a couple nurse-midwives. I have a single nurse-midwife assigned to me that I see for all of my appointments who is my main point of contact. She will hopefully be there for my delivery, but it's not guaranteed. But one of the other midwives will be there. It just depends who's on call and who is already working with another patient. I probably won't even know what OB will be working with me until the day of, but like someone said, they're only present for some key parts.

If you would really like a guarantee of a specific person being with you, you might like a doula. They are more limited in the clients they take so that they can guarantee they'll be with you when you deliver. Might be worth a look!

emilyve · April 2014

Irisheyes1247 said:

With both my girls, I managed to get the OB I hadn't met from my practice yet, but they really aren't there for a lot of time. Now I am at a Midwifery practice, but it is the same - someone from the practice is always on call at the hospital, not necessarily the main person you see at your appointments, and that is who is there.

See this is my issue. From what I understand, someone from my office won't necessarily be on call during the weekend. It could be someone from another practice. I don't know why, but I'm just not very comfortable with that.

emilyve · April 2014

Just to add to my above comment, I would feel perfectly comfortable if someone from my practice would be on call any given day of the week. At least then I would have the chance to meet them and get to know them.

emilyve · April 2014

Also, thanks for the suggestions

BethanyAnn27 · April 2014

I see a group of 8 midwives at a large hospital. There will always be 2 MD's in house at all times and a midwife on call. Since I am on the midwife service, the midwife on call will come in whenever I go into labor (weekend or not) so I will know them, even if they didn't provide a lot of my prenatal care. The two in-house MD's are for women on the high-risk OB team and regular OB team, but are there to assist the midwives if anything went wrong during delivery.

I know it is common for an on-call from your prenatal care service to be the only one to come in no matter which member of the team you have been seeing up until then, but it strikes me as odd that if you are on a midwife service that you wouldn't get a midwife to deliver baby. Just my thoughts.

JSS1002 · April 2014

emilyve said:
Just to add to my above comment, I would feel perfectly comfortable if someone from my practice would be on call any given day of the week. At least then I would have the chance to meet them and get to know them.

I think it's a little abnormal to not have anybody on call over he weekend. My practice they trade off working weekends. I had an induction last time and a routine cs this time so I know I'll have my doc. I remember last time thinking I wouldn't care who the doc was but then as things progressed I was really glad it was my actual doctor. Unlike some people, she was there for a ton of my labor and all my pushing and then performed my emergency cs.

RedBaramid · April 2014

At our practice there are 2 doctors and 2 midwives. Throughout my pregnancy I will do different appointments with all of them. Some of the more whole body health appointments are with the midwives, more heavy testing appointments (like the GD appointment I have next week) are with the doctors. I will know them all and they all take turns being on-call/the person who delivers. It's nice to know that I won't have a stranger when I give birth, but still frustrating that I don't have ONE person I can look to for answers.

chusum · April 2014

At the practice I go to they rotate which of the OBs in the practice are on call. With normal pregnancies they rotate who you see during your visits so you get an opportunity to meet all the OBs because you get who ever is on call in the practice when you go into labor. Though my OB doesn't put me in the rotation because of my risks and issues and plans to be at the delivery with a planned induction while he's on call. I will say @MermaidsMagic‌ is right, the L&D nurses do the bulk of the work anyway. They make a lot of the calls, report back to the OB on call and your normal OB/MW might only come in a couple times to check and then once you are crowning they come in.

Irisheyes1247 · April 2014

MermaidsMagic said:

emilyve said:

Irisheyes1247 said:

With both my girls, I managed to get the OB I hadn't met from my practice yet, but they really aren't there for a lot of time. Now I am at a Midwifery practice, but it is the same - someone from the practice is always on call at the hospital, not necessarily the main person you see at your appointments, and that is who is there.

See this is my issue. From what I understand, someone from my office won't necessarily be on call during the weekend. It could be someone from another practice. I don't know why, but I'm just not very comfortable with that.

I suggest you get a doula, someone you will know and feel comfortable with in case you do deliver on the weekend.

I've got to be honest, I could not have cared less at the time. I labor at home for as long as possibly, so I really only saw the drs for pushing. I just thought it was kind of annoying because with DD1, I had an appt scheduled with the dr who delivered me the very next day, and with DD2, the dr on call the day I was in labor and the following day were the only two in the practice that onl worked at the far away office so I had never met them. In both instances, I made sure to meet ALL the drs I could, and still managed to get the one or two I hadn't met.

SingleMom31 · April 2014

My practice has three OBs and a MW, and they share an on-call schedule with a practice of four other doctors. So, I have a one-in-seven chance of seeing my own OB and only about a 50/50 chance of it being someone from my normal practice. With DD, I ended up with someone I'd never met from the other practice... Honestly, I couldn't have cared less at that point. I had been laboring with the nurses and pushing for a while and needed help. She was great and DD made it out at the end. I wouldn't sweat it.

teenybean · April 2014

Very common practice. Ask for an induction at term when they're available. And also as I tell my patients the sign of a healthy, normal labor and delivery is that the only person you really see in the hospital is your nurse until the doc or midwives come and deliver.

megs2011 · April 2014

I might not know the OB delivering my baby. All of the maternity floors in the area have merged into 1 hospital so I can get 1 of many OBs delivering my baby. If I'm lucky, my OB MIGHT be the one in the hospital the day I deliver. I didn't have my OB with my twins either.

MMason12 · April 2014

I go to a practice where there are 7-9 OB's and they all rotate days at the hospital or who's on call. It's a long shot to have your actual OB be the one there to deliver you.

Since I've been there for so long now (8 years) I've met almost all of the OB's at one point or another and all of them I like.

I have no issue that my specific OB will probably not deliver us.

If you aren't okay or aren't comfortable with that then you should keep looking around.

But a PP is right, if all goes well during labor all your OB does is show up towards the end to catch the baby.

LTMama · April 2014

It seems strange to me not to have anyone from your practice on call on the weekends, ever? I go to a small practice of 3 OBs, and one of them is always on call. My water broke on a Saturday and I delivered on Sunday morning, and one of them was there with me when I checked in and when I got ready to push.

I like the size of this practice, because I've had tons of appointments with each of the OBs and am comfortable with any one of them delivering me. But it does seem kind of unusual to have no weekend coverage at all?

whataboutscience · April 2014

My office has 4 OBs and they try to have you meet all 4. Still, on the weekends they partner with another office so that there's still a decent chance you get a doctor you've never met.

Bella2425 · April 2014

I had never met the doctor that delivered my DS, but she was from the same practice as my doctor. No weekend coverage is kind of odd, but I'm not totally familiar with the whole midwife thing, so maybe that's normal??

emilyve · April 2014

It's a small town, so I'm guessing that's why there isn't guaranteed weekend coverage. It seemed odd to me too, that's why I wanted to throw the question out there. I might look into a practice in a nearby, bigger city.

MikeBeth1 · April 2014

My practice has 5 or 6 OBs and is directly across from the hospital. My OB tries to deliver all of his babies, and makes over 90%. He was there last time, and hopefully he will be this time. It was comforting to have the same one during delivery that I had all of those months in the office visits.
After reading all of these posts, I feel super lucky.

JackieB15 · April 2014

I got really lucky and my OB is obsessed with delivering babies, so she's on call 24/7 unless she's on vacation or at an important family event. A couple of weeks before my due date we looked at a calendar and she told me the dates to try to avoid (joking, of course) No Thanksgiving morning because she cooks dinner, but that evening was fine so she could stick her kids with the dishes. No going into labor on the night of the final Twilight movie's premier because she WOULD be there and didn't want to leave early. And the night I actually had my baby she was at a memorial service for a friend, but she came by afterwards and made it in time to deliver my daughter. I'm glad she made it as the on call doctor came in to break my water and I did not care for him at all.

SingleMom31 · April 2014

JeremiahsBabe said:

I would also suggest getting a Doula then to have someone there you know throughout labor.

With DD I still don't know the name of the OB who delivered her. I only met him once before I started pushing and he was in the room for about the last 10 mins of pushing and then to stitch me up afterwards. I also went through a nurse change so had two different nurses through labor. I also have no idea who all the people were who ended up in the room right before I pushed her out. I think it was a nurse and OB for me and a team of nurses and a pedi for DD but there were like 6ish people in there... I could not have cared less though.

I lost count of how many people saw me while I was there. There were two shift changes of nurses (especially since it was Christmas day), so we had three nurses; there was a shift change of OBs (one that I knew rotated off and another rotated on); I had a few residents in there off and on; and then we got to delivery... She ended up being a vacuum delivery, which (at our hospital) requires that a second OB, an additional nurse, and a NICU team be there for the baby. So, we had at least 6 or 7 different people in there when she came out. I thought I'd be weirded out, but I really wasn't.

Want a personalized experience?

Don't go into labor on the weekend? OB/midwife question.

Re: Don't go into labor on the weekend? OB/midwife question.

Choose Another Board

Search Boards