University hospital tour
Last week, Mama Jae and I completed our third and final hospital tour. University hospital is the one place in town where midwives have delivery privileges. It is also the one place in town with a laboring tub (just one–for the midwife patients only, and it’s first come, first served).
We liked it. We liked it a lot. We liked that the staff sees a wider variety of people, of all races and sexual orientations and ethnicities and socio-economic statuses, and is therefore a bit more enlightened. We really liked the idea of a midwife, of course, and I really like the idea of a tub to labor in. Some of our fears about University were allayed–everything is on one floor there, and it’s pretty locked-down, so there’s no reason to fear hospital-borne illness. There’s the issue of having a c-section, and of having it done by a resident, but my dad gave me some great questions to ask the staff there so that we can make a more informed decision.
We have our first appointment with our OB on Thursday, and are going to see what we think about her and her practice, and ask her some questions about whether my pregnancy is high-risk (I had some spotting again over the past few days) and about the other people in her practice. If we like her, and are reassured enough by what she has to say about how the birth might go if she’s not attending it, or if we find that I should definitely be under a doctor’s care, we may stay with Park. If we don’t, however, we may switch to the midwife practice where we had a consultation last month.
Is this crazy? I mean, here I am, just over 15 weeks pregnant, and we have not yet seen a health care practitioner, except for our fertility clinic at 6ish weeks and the emergency room team last weekend, and we’re already thinking about switching. I think that being this pregnant without a caregiver is making me anxious, and I’m afraid that in my anxiety to just be under someone’s care already, I’ll want to just stick with the OB and be done with it. We have done so much research and reading and thinking about this, but in the end, as long as we have a healthy baby, that’s the goal, right? Are we overanalyzing here?
I'm all for getting under someone's care quickly, if only for the peace of mind that you'll have a particular person to call if something happens that you don't expect. ' Whatever it's going to take to get a healthy baby' might mean an OB and that's completely okay if it puts your mind at ease.
I don't think it's crazy at all, but then I have been known to over-analyze things a bit. I also kind of like teaching hospitals (which is why I didn't say anything when you were talking about them before). Our RE is with University of Chicago and the OB-GYN/midwife practice I have picked out is also affiliated with Northwestern University. We both want to have a baby at Northwestern's women's hospital. It's the shiznit, new and fancy with water tanks and birthing rooms and everything.
My high risk practice also has a midwife on board, so I guess we got the best of both worlds with an OBGYN and a midwife.
I think that 'going with whatever it takes' to get the healthy baby on board should be the main focus. That's what it came down with for us.
Once I accepted that ultimately this is all out of our control, the choices became much easier.
No, you aren't crazy. It's really important to be comfortable with your practioner. We switched after two appts with our first ob because it didn't feel right. You have plenty of time to look around some and find the perfect fit.
You aren't over analyzing at all! Your choice of caregiver is incredibly important if you want a particular birth experience. Of course, having a healthy baby is more important! But caregiver choice is also super important. At 15 weeks you've still got time to find the practice that's perfect for you, and you should never feel like you can't switch if you're uncomfortable.
Oh, it's not crazy. We've been all over the map about what we want for care. It seems we've settled on the hospital midwives, but we're still antsy about certain things. Of course, first thing is your and Bao's health, and if that means an OB, it sounds like Park is a good option. That said, we've found that all things being equal, the greater diversity at the midwifery practice has made for a big emotional difference. Uno feels listened-to and respected and I feel included. I didn't realize how much I'd been feeling like some weird extra limb of Uno's until we saw the midwife yesterday and she looked me in the eyes, called me by name, and referenced our decisions “as a couple.” I could have cried. Whatever you decide, there's not a “bad” option in the mix, as my mom pointed out to me yesterday. You're doing amazing amounts of research and Bao is lucky to have such conscientious moms. Good luck Thurs. Will be waiting to hear!
i think you got to go with your gut on this one.
You should get your prenatal care from whichever provider you are “with” right now but that doesn't mean you can't switch. We switched from an OB to a midwife practice at 30 weeks and it was totally fine and the right decision for us. The midwife practice that delivers at University most likely has a back-up OB if you need more intervention than they can provide. Including a scheduled c-section. I'm guessing it's only if you needed an emergency C that you'd end up with whoever was on call at the hospital.
And, FWIW, I ended up needing emergency intervention during my birth (vacuum delivery) and the on call OB was teriffic. However, I was not at a teaching hospital.
I think it's okay to shop around. Hopefully the visit with the OB will give you some peace of mind so you won't feel rushed into a decision. I'm sure you'll have a feeling about what will work best for your family once you see what's out there.
I'm with Nutella – see whoever is available right now and then switch if you want to. There are no rules regarding who you need to see or switching providers. You could even see both for a while and then decide.
BTW – I'm excited I can actually comment again!