Reply to natural birth supportive ob at holy cross?

Forum Index » Expectant and Postpartum Moms

Reply to "natural birth supportive ob at holy cross?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]I think that keeping your meeting with the Lockwood CWC group is a good idea, but I would be very thoughtful about the questions you ask Dr. Berger-Weiss.  She was my OB, and there was a LOT to like about that practice (genuinely kind doctors, professionalism at every level of the staff, etc.), but I ultimately left because I didn't think I'd be able to have a natural birth with them.  I talked to at least three of the docs about it (Travers, Levitt, Seidel), and, in the abstract, they all claimed to be supportive of natural birth.  As I learned more about what natural birth can require, and as I started to ask more specific questions, their answers became less reassuring.  Also, it seems that they play a pretty small part in the L&D process (as compared to the midwives I'm with now), so your likelihood for unmedicated birth is just as dependent on hospital protocols and nursing staff inclinations as it is on the OBs themselves.  (And on those counts, HC doesn't have a good reputation.)

So, if I were you, I would make sure to ask them very specific questions, or at least questions that require specific answers: What do you do to facilitate unmedicated birth?  At what point do you ask a laboring woman to come into the hospital?  How much mobility can I expect during labor--how frequent will electronic monitoring be, and can I expect a heplock rather than an IV?  How long will you allow a woman to labor in the hospital?  What pushing positions do you encourage?  When (at what week/day) past my due date would you require an induction?

When I asked questions like those, I didn't like the answers I got.  Ultimately, I realized that as much as I'd like to have an unmedicated birth, I'm NOT going to be the warrior strapped to a bed simply breathing/meditating through the contractions.  The only way I will possibly be successful unmedicated is if I can move, try various coping mechanisms, and be guided by people who know how to make an unmedicated birth work.

Two things regarding doulas: (1) The CWC Lockwood practice claims to be comfortable with a doula, and they probably are.  But when I switched practices and had to go pick up my medical records from them, I noted that every doc I talked to had put a special note in my file that I had hired a doula.  Maybe they were just being descriptive and informative, but it felt a little judgmental to me.  (2) Go to the By Your Side info session as soon as possible.  We thought we would use them also, but we weren't very impressed with them at their info session, so I was glad that we'd gone to it early enough that we still had time to shop around (and we have ended up with a wonderful independent doula).

Finally, I just want to say in regard to the CWC Lockwood group--I really do think they're a fantastic group of practitioners.  Travers, in particular, has great bedside manner; one time I called the after-hours line for what I can now recognize as a really silly FTM worry, and he took me very seriously, treated me like I was sane, etc.--as if he hadn't been listening to crazy FTMs freak out over these issues for 20 years.  So if I ever decide that I want the more traditional OB model of care again, I would go back to them in an instant.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics