Foxhall or Bloom -- would either accomodate a female only practitioner birth (including Dr. Green)?

[Anonymous]

For a variety of reasons, I'm not comfortable with an male OB, but these two practices are the most convenient. Has anyone had success with them accommodating this type of situation (whether SA related or religious)?

[Anonymous]

What do you expect to happen when you go into labor on a night when one of the male partners is on call? It is not realistic to expect a female doctor to come in on her off day to accommodate your gender preference. Instead you will be taking whatever doctor the hospital provides.

[Anonymous]

Foxhall just hired a male doctor who did his medication education and training in Moldova. I haven't met him, maybe he's great, but....that would give me pause.

Their other guy is Beckerman. I saw him twenty years ago and liked him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Foxhall just hired a male doctor who did his medication education and training in Moldova. I haven't met him, maybe he's great, but....that would give me pause.

Their other guy is Beckerman. I saw him twenty years ago and liked him.

Oh I also saw Dr Green about five years ago and liked her too.

I do not like Lightfoot. She was dismissive and looked visibly irritated by me. I'd rather interact with Beckerman than Lightfoot, frankly.

[Anonymous]

Here's the Moldova guy. Actually he did his training in NY.

"Foxhall OB/GYN Associates is very pleased to welcome Dr. Oleg Dolghi. Dr. Dolghi is a graduate of the State Medical and Pharmaceutical University of Chisinau, Moldova and he completed his OB/GYN residency at Maimonides Medical Center in New York. Dr. Dolghi has been in practice for more than 20 years and his clinical interests include normal and high-risk pregnancy, well-woman care, and minimally invasive gynecological surgery."

[Anonymous]

I think something weird is going on with Foxhall. They had two good doctors leave recently. And Malone retired and is no longer there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you expect to happen when you go into labor on a night when one of the male partners is on call? It is not realistic to expect a female doctor to come in on her off day to accommodate your gender preference. Instead you will be taking whatever doctor the hospital provides.

When I was delivering, a resident came in all upset and told my female ob/gyn that there was a husband demanding a female doctor for his delivering wife.

My doctor told the resident that the husband's preference was not to be accommodated and that a doctor is a doctor.

I told her she could go to the other person and I would accept help from another, but she was the only person from my practice on duty and she did not want to do that.

I am mentioning this because you should come to terms with this now. Otherwise there may be spillover effects you won't even be aware of. Thank you for being proactive.

[Anonymous]

I agree with others that if you are at a large practice, it may be difficult to get the practitioner you want. Even if you go with a solo woman (or all women practice) there is also the chance a man will be in the room (nurse, resident, etc.) or delivering you.

I do understand why you are uncomfortable. The one nice thing about labor is that once heavy labor starts you just want that baby the hell out of you as fast as possible. I think this is a biological thing. You could have a choir in there watching and you won't care.

[Anonymous]

Bloom will absolutely not accommodate this. They are incredibly dismissive. If you want this, you’ll need to schedule an induction for when a woman (or two, if you are a first-timer) is on call..

[Anonymous]

Bloom won't accommodate this but you can't blame a small practice. Th doctors are already on call a TON. 3 doctors means they're on call every 3rd night, and then the weekends - I can't imagine that! You will get who's on call at that time.

[Anonymous]

Not one of your two options, but CWC only has female OBs as of now, so you wouldn’t have to worry about that (assuming they don’t hire a male between now and your delivery).

[Anonymous]

This is something to work through in therapy because the only way forward is acceptance that you can’t control your provider, birth, and birth outcome. Much of pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum is a roll of the dice and you have to adapt and roll with it - same goes for the rest of parenting. There are no female only practices that you can go to (there used to be only one in DC that was only two women and they did not take insurance and they delivered at Sibley - but they closed a few years back) and any practice will have male OBs.

As a trauma survivor, I suggest the book, When Survivors Give Birth. I also suggest training your husband to be a very verbal, vocal, and direct advocate for you and to have him handle telling people if you are a SA survivor if you are comfortable with that. I also suggest you learn to be an advocate for yourself as well. Personally, I had to tell each provider at the hospital and my OB about my trauma history. I had to ask each provider to introduce them self to me before caring for me. If they just ignored me and went to take blood or whatever I would say, hi, who are you? Can you tell me what you’ll be doing before you care for me? Sibley has gotten very good about having their care providers introduce themselves first but sometimes they forget. I also asked it to be noted in my chart that I had a trauma history and I discussed it without going into much detail to my providers and nurses and asked them to alert their colleagues when I went into labor and delivery. I also opted for a scheduled C section. Having good pain control is also extremely helpful, and I highly recommend an epidural. Learning to be an advocate for yourself and your child is a skill you will need the rest of your life and while it is difficult it’s not something you can avoid. A female provider is also no guarantee of a good experience. The female OB who sutured my 3rd degree tear was a total jerk
Who kept asking me, why are you screaming? Well it was b/c the local she had given me wasn’t working, and my tears were extremely Deep. Meanwhile my male OB with my second was way more gentle with pelvic exams and caring about my pain. Female gender does not equal good care. Also getting used to everyone in masks was important for me since that was a huge trigger. Again - therapy can help.
More caring and gentle

[Anonymous]

Capital Women’s Care on K street is all women right now as someone mentioned above. Chances are you’ll have a female otherwise you can try the midwives at GWU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you expect to happen when you go into labor on a night when one of the male partners is on call? It is not realistic to expect a female doctor to come in on her off day to accommodate your gender preference. Instead you will be taking whatever doctor the hospital provides.

Why bother respond to a post like this about something that is clearly a sensitive topic to just be rude? I was literally asking a question, because I don't know what is and is not possible.

Hope you never have to experience SA and deal with the repercussions, but some of us aren't as lucky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Capital Women’s Care on K street is all women right now as someone mentioned above. Chances are you’ll have a female otherwise you can try the midwives at GWU.

Thank you for being one of the only people who provided helpful information.