Question on OB's and Larger Practices

atraveller · June 2014

Hi folks - this may have been asked and answered and if so I apologize for not seeing the earlier post. I switched practices when I found out I was pregnant. Long story short, my former practice was fine, but I was less than confident with my doctor after she recommended I use misoprostol when I had a missed miscarriage and didn't properly warn me of the "pain" I would be in and recommended simple over the counter advil. I had all the side effects and ended up in the ER. Anyways, I realized after all those bad vibes of the miscarriage, etc...I wanted to start fresh.

I really like my new practice and while I don't love love my new doctor to death, I like her andI think she's competent and I feel confident with her. Here's the thing. There are 6 doctors in this practice and 3 midwives and any of them can deliver you. So after seeing my doctor for my 1st two appts. (12 weeks and 16 weeks) I've been recommended to see a different doctor for each subsequent appt. to try and meet all of them. I met with one of the midwives at my 20 week appt and she was really great. This week I meet with one of the other OB's and then another midwife on week 28 and so on and so forth.

On the one hand - I think its good for me to meet everyone and I may find I like one of the other doctors in the practice better than my own (re: find one I really connect with and love, love) I can then perhaps then switch (if not for the birth, at least for my long term Ob/Gyn care) - but on the other hand I worry that this is not allowing for as much consistency of treatment. I read someone else talking about how they chose a doctor available for their birth month and this practice isn't like that at all. With a 1 in 9 chance of my doctor delivering me, I'd say its probably good I'm meeting everyone else but again, I also wonder if things will be missed if I'm meeting with a different person every appointment. All the nurses assure me when I call that this is normal practice and I shouldn't be concerned and they have said I can try to meet with just my doctor for each appt, but they encourage meeting with everyone because of the chance of someone else delivering me. I believe thoughts on natural childbirth, C-sections, etc... are consistent through the practice, but not completely sure. I was going to talk with the doctor I'm meeting this Friday about all of this and get an idea of their practices. I will of course be meeting her for the first time.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Any non-first time Mom's dealt with this on their first pregnancies? Appreciate any thoughts and advice.

RMiller25 · June 2014

My practice has six doctors, and they do the same thing, I shuffle around to meet them all when pregnant. Even though this is my second pregnancy, I'm having to make the rounds again! Like you, I was new to the practice with my first pregnancy, and it turned out that I loved one doctor in particular. I lucked out, he was the doctor on call during my delivery, and I've stuck with him since.

Overall though, in my experience, it really wouldn't have mattered which doctor delivered my son. He came in once to break my water (I was fully dilated, but my water hadn't broken) and then again when it was time to "catch".

Justabean3 · June 2014

My last OB office had 5 ob's. I had a different one delivery me than my primary. In fact she was the only one I hadn't seen..

Ironically I liked her best but really all the nurses do the work in labor.

They are your encouragers, your hand holder , your dilation checker and your advocates. ob's are great but your nurse is the one you rely on once in labor.

bumpuser10309732 · June 2014

The practice I go to is the same way. I've seen my actual doctor the last several times though. I don't think anything would be missed. I've gotten a copy of my charts for travel a couple of times and those things are pretty detailed. I think it's kind of nice having multiples so they don't miss anything!

lrobi13 · June 2014

Yep, for most women it is the luck of the draw. I know that my ob does everything she can to be there for her patients that are in labor but I think it is fairly common to deliver with another doctor since babies don't come on a schedule (at least most of the time).

From what I gather, you doctor will not be with you a whole bunch anyway and that you mainly are relying on the l&d nurses. If you are truly worried about not having the right support you may want to look into doulas. They are there the whole time.

eta: wrong there

LightBright515 · June 2014

There are 4 OB's at my practice. However, only two of them do deliveries. During this pregnancy and my previous Gyno care, I've seen just about all of them. I have preferences of course, but I believe they're all competent.

I'm more concerned with meshing with my nurse, as a nurse myself.

staryb · June 2014

This is how my ob office is too with 5 doctors. I realized that this was how it worked when I started looking and all I knew was that I preferred a female doctor so I found an all female practice. I feel comfortable with everyone I've met so far which is good since I wont know who's delivering my baby until it happens.

jusmale · June 2014

The practice I go to is the same way. A close friend of mine highly recommended this practice and she has had two babies with them. There are 6 doctors and I see a different doctor at each appointment. I like all of the doctors so far and I have met 5 out of the 6 of them. I would feel comfortable having any of the doctors deliver my baby and I know it will depend on who is on call when my baby is born.

atraveller · June 2014

Hi folks - thanks so much for all of your responses - hearing that this is fairly common practice is definitely reassuring. I think it's a bit more disconcerting to me because I'm going into third trimester and still haven't met most of the doctors - that is because I did two of my appts. with my same doctor and had my first appt at my fertility clinic (not my ob/gyn) before I was released to Ob/Gyn, so have had only 3 appts - 12 week, 16 week and 20 week. Also because I'm new to this practice - but everyone I have met has been great and the nurses in the doctor's office (though not sure if that's the same nurses at delivery) have all been great too.

mrscjmb9410 - wow 10 days of post partum visits - that's very cool. I don't think we get that here. My mom wants me to hire a nurse for the week after we get home from the hospital and even offered to pay but I know DH would hate that and I feel like I want to learn how to do everything on my own with DH's help of course.

lrobi13 - I hear ya on the Doula - I looked into one and thought about it but DH feels like a Doula will displace him and he really doesn't want anyone else in the delivery room but he, I and medical staff. I can kind of understand that and I know he'll do whatever he can to support me.

BreandMikewedding · June 2014

My ob practice is very large. I think they have around 14 drs and 6 midwives. The midwives only deliver their patients as they can't do c-sections or high risk deliveries. With my first I went to a small practice with two drs. I had to schedule my appts two months in advance to get appts that worked for my schedule. I also had lots of appts cancelled because they were delivering their pts. With my last pregnancy I saw all the providers at least once and there were some I liked better than others. They all had my records and could continue my care month to month. I like to at least meet them in case they end up delivering. You never know if your dr will be delivering someone else or on vacation when you go into labor. Even if you have a one dr practice you may have a different dr deliver.

Sockgnome78 · June 2014

My OB practice is the way you describe it.
I will see the first of a meet and greet of the first doctor. So I think this is my opportunity to get to know them a hit better. Ask those questions to find out. I also believe that they are in communication with your OB.
So yes ask questions and get know their thoughts. Just like you interview for a doctor for yourself or your LO.

JessAnnJ · June 2014

That is how my practice is a well. Whatever doctor is on call is the one that will deliver your baby. I saw two different doctors when I was in labor. I have met everyone at this point so I just make my appointments based on who is available at the time that works best for me. You spend very little time with your doctor during labor. I guess what I try to remember is that good doctors are not going to want crappy ones or ones with totally different views to join their practice. Also, I made sure I liked the credentials of all of them.

Maggie6424 · June 2014

I'm with Kaiser (HMO) so I get whoever is on call at the hospital. They also advised me to see multiple staff who deliver at my hospital so I have a better chance of having met whomever it may be on D day.

narabug · June 2014

They try to have my main OB do the delivery, but she said they'll have me meet all the others in the practice toward the end of my pregnancy just in case. You never know what might come up so she wouldn't be able to. I think there are 5 or 6 different docs.

Starfish17 · June 2014

There are 4 OBs in my practice. I was allowed to see my "primary" up until 20 weeks, and now they want me to see each of the other 3 at least once just in case. With my DS, I was induced for being overdue, and my OB happened to be on-call that day. With DD, I actually had some random midwife on the floor deliver me because baby girl was not waiting for the OB to get there (so I never met her before delivering). To be honest, when it came time to push, I really didn't care who delivered me. Most practices tend to have providers that are like-minded in approaches, and I know that they will consult with the "primary" if issues or questions arise during the pregnancy too.

Lapooh · June 2014

My doctor's office has a gazillion OBs, hence the plan is to see my OB as much as possible for all visit. But the chance that she will be doing the delivery if remote, to say the least, considering the number of providers

ashie0610 · June 2014

My practice is very similar to yours. I don't actually consider any of them to be "my" doctor or midwife and make it a point to rotate through all of them for each appointment. I just met the last one today.

Like yours, my practice encourages meeting everyone since you don't know who will be with you on delivery day. I've actually really enjoyed getting to know all of them and hearing their perspectives on the type of birth I want, how my history could affect this delivery, and their philosophies on things like induction, birth plans, etc. I've found that they have very different personalities and I have some I just gel with a little better on a personal level, but they are also very consistent in the way they approach things which makes me feel confident in all of them so far.

I've heard stories of people with a sole provider who happen to be on vacation that day, or have another birth or emergency surgery when the time comes, and end up delivering with an on-call doctor who they've never met, so I actually kind of prefer this way anyway.

hippohat · June 2014

Yup, same for me. Last time I did the round robin of meeting docs for these in-between appointments where not much is happening, but towards the end I always saw my OB. I figure that any of my wishes will be noted in my chart and re-iterated in the hospital. And like the previous people have said, you'll barely see your OB at delivery, it's the nurses who'll be taking care of you during labor. So long as you're ok with everyone in the practice things will likely work out just fine!

My OB was in the hospital for something else and heard I was in L&D so she came to see me, took our first family pics, and stayed to make sure everything was going well.

And ditto that by that time you won't care who's delivering you! I even had a couple students observe… would have never imagined letting that happen, but I didn't mind at all.

MorganWP · June 2014

The practice we go to has 6 doctors but only 2 ae OBs. We mostly see the one but if we have to do a walk in or she's away, then we see the other one. We like them both, it was nice to meet both of them because either of them couldve delivered DD.

I agree with PP that the L&D nurses do most of the work when it comes to delivery. My OB almost didnt make it.

Also, its nice because my OB does all our post partum check ups for a year. Me and baby.

ariel06 · June 2014

My practice has 6 doctors. During office hours your doctor will deliver. If it nights or weekends, it's whoever is on call. With DS1, I had a c/s scheduled with my doctor (breech), but my water broke so I had the on call doctor. I labored 24 hours at the hospital for DS2, so I saw several on call doctors from my clinic. By the end, I would have been okay with pretty much anyone helping with delivery.

Saragoeswest · June 2014

Hmmm I have never heard of meeting all of the docs in a practice. I feel very jealous. Sounds like such a good idea so you can relax a little more with whomever is on call. I'm going to ask my OB about it.

BreandMikewedding · June 2014

Another note... When I had my first I only saw my dr and didn't even meet the other dr. My dr didn't tell me she was retiring soon after I delivered, so when I called to schedule my post partum appt she was gone. I didn't feel comfortable seeing the other dr since I had never met him so I never went for my post partum check. Luckily everything was fine but it probably wasn't the smartest idea. If I would have at least met him before I delivered I would have seen him for my pp.

vrj0522 · June 2014

The practice I go to has 6 OBs and 6 MWs. You pick which group you want to use and that's who you rotate through. Last time I saw the MWs and met them all except one. Luckily she wasn't the one to deliver my baby since I didn't really know her. This time around I am meeting with the OBs due to some risks that could create complications at the end of pregnancy. Because I already know the MWs, I wanted to meet the OBs in case they are the ones that end up delivering my baby. If I don't leave the practice (I'm considering based on location), I will probably switch to the MWs during the rest of my pregnancy since I've pretty much met all the OBs by now. There you also don't have ONE specific doctor as your ob/gyn... you basically get whoever is in the office the day/time you schedule your appointment.

Once you get to 3rd tri, you will be having a lot more visits so you'll probably have a good chance of meeting all the OBs at the practice. I have a friend who just saw her one OB and ended up delivering with another OB because hers wasn't at the hospital the day she went into labor. This is common for those who don't have a rotating group of doctors so I actually like the rotating setup because you are pretty much guaranteed that you will deliver with someone that you know.

Jennyc00 · June 2014

Yikes... My ob practice has 4 md's and I've only seen my dr thankfully. I'd feel nervous being passed along to all of them. On the other hand though... If my dr wasn't on call when I delivered it would be nice to have already met the face coming in to catch!

atraveller · June 2014

Lots of great stuff here folks and I'm feeling much more reassured. Thank you! Because I was ignorant on childbirth methods, birth plans, etc.... early on, I didn't ask questions about that, so didn't really get my OB's perspective on that but will be getting perspectives from the others I meet as now I have lots of questions on those areas. Hopefully their answers will gel with my thinking.

MrsP610 · June 2014

Disclaimer: Didn't get through all the replies just wanted to give my perspective.

I belong to a large practice. There are 6 OB's that deliver and I go to one of the branch offices so I only have the chance of seeing 4 of those 6 doctors. I ended up getting one of the doctors who I never met deliver my son. I didn't care one bit. The nurses at the hospital were more important to me than the doctor. He literally showed up the last 20 minutes after I was already pushing for 10-15 minutes. (he was in a surgery, baby wasn't waiting... it got exciting for awhile because they didn't think the doc would even make it before baby was here) The nurses coached me through most of my labor and the doctor just checked my cervix every couple of hours.

My "regular" or "favorite" OB visited me twice during labor because he was in the above mentioned surgery. It was great seeing him but I would have been okay without seeing him.

In the end you have to decide what you like. I'm a very laid back person and had a very easy pregnancy and delivery so the doctor wasn't *that* important to me. I don't need that personal connection to feel comfortable. I just need people I trust and I trust this practice so I put my trust in all the doctors. I was more worried about whether I'd have to share a room postpartum but we'll save those horrible details for another day.

DaniGrace89 · June 2014

I'm a FTM...I really like one doctor and would be happy seeing her every time. They are making me rotate though. It bothers me because 1) I don't want to start over trusting a new doctor every time. 2)whichever doctor is on call the day of my delivery is based on their schedules, not mine. I can't change it, and therefor don't care. 3)if a doctor I see randomly is an a$$ I don't want to be anxious about them delivering my baby. If rather not know I guess

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