Reply to Experiences with Physicians & Midwives (or large practices) and INOVA Alexandria

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm in my first trimester of pregnancy as a FTM and currently with Physicians and Midwives. They have an office that is very convenient to my job and my home and make scheduling and getting lab results pretty easy through their online portal. However, they are a pretty large practice with over 15 delivering staff between midwives and ObGyns.  They encourage you to rotate through the different staff so you can meet as many as possible. But part of me wonders if something gets lost in this setup. It would be nice to get to know a few practitioners well versus many superficially. The other thing is INOVA Alexandria and their baby-friendly designation as well as their higher C-section rate (which I assume might be lower with this practice but I'm not sure), both of which I'm not too excited about. However, even though I'm pretty midway from VHC, Inova Alexandria, and Inova Fairfax in no traffic, Alexandria is the one that never goes over being 25 minutes away despite traffic which I imagine is also equally important.

I say all that to ask, how did you find the experience working with this practice throughout the pregnancy to postpartum period (or other similarly large practices)? Any cons that would lead you to suggest looking for a smaller practice? And if so, any specific suggestions on practices?  How was your experience with Inova Alexandria? Was the baby-friendly arrangement so terrible?

Any answers to any of these questions would be appreciated. [/quote]

I have been with P&M for 5 years and am having my 2nd pregnancy with them.  There are advantages to being with a larger practice.  You can hop onto the patient portal and find a midwife or doctor SAME DAY and not have to call for an appointment.  That's unheard of in a smaller practice.  Another great thing is they have a sonographer on site so you can be seen immediately or see your doctor/MW as soon as that appointment is over and you don't have to pay two co-pays.  They also have a lab on site so you can get blood work immediately.  The phlebotomists are so nice too.

If you want to see a few midwives/doctors, you can.  You can't go wrong with any of them, they're all soo wonderful.  I struggle to recommend my favorite!  I made the rounds with them last time but this time I'm seeing who is available with my schedule.  Whitney, Elyse and Dr. Ahdoot (his wife Dr. Ahdoot is another favorite at Pediatrics of Alexandria) are incredible, but I don't have much experience with the other doctors.  My appointment with Dr. Ahdoot (made same day) was at 3:00 and he walked in at 2:59.  I actually teased him for it.  That's UNHEARD OF.  I have never had to wait for my appointment.

If you are also close to Inova Fairfax, the facility is much newer and nicer than Alex.  But I don't know any practices that work out of that one.  I don't care for the baby-friendly designation, I wanted to get some sleep but the nurses will take your baby if you ask.  The delivery rooms at Alex are huge and nice, the recovery room is really small.  Go for a tour of both hospitals and see how you feel.  I'm much closer to Alex though and wanted the convenience of going somewhere close to home so that's why I'll stay with them.

But overall, I can't say enough nice things about P&M.  My only complaint is the Kenmore office can be annoying to park in and get upstairs, but they have parking attendants now and the elevators have only been out one time this pregnancy (I'm 20 weeks).[/quote]

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