Rupal's story
I'm the mother of Baby Lakshman and I delivered at the Wilmington Birth Center just under 4 weeks ago. It's funny - I go through my blog (www.doc2mom.com) and I thought I'd have a detailed account there about how I switched care providers, but instead what I find is more of a "before" and "after" but very little "during" listed - so I"ll write in more detail here!
Switching from OB to Midwife care providers was the hardest decision, but easiest action, I took during pregnancy. Earlier in pregnancy I had considered the Wilmington Birth Center and went for a tour (which I highly recommend), but we also found out that there were a few potential complications to the pregnancy - low lying placenta, question of gestational diabetes, and cyst in my uterus (all of which completely resolved or never came to be). I also felt strange that as a pediatrician I was considering midwifery care - some of the
pediatricians I had worked with admired when people did it but stated clearly that they could never go to a midwife themselves. That statement affected me pretty profoundly. Plus when I met my very nice OB she said that yes, I could do natural birth in her environment, no problem.
Pregnancy was initially pretty uneventful - I had my scheduled visits with the OB once a month and got all the testing done. Little by little it started to look lower risk - I felt great, the "cyst" disappeared, the placenta moved to a normal position, I passed my 3- hour glucose test with flying colors, and I was gaining weight appropriately, and working out regularly, but by the time I reached 28 weeks gestation I felt as clueless about how to approach deliver as I did when I first found out I was pregnant. I began to explore options of more structured childcare classes (the ones at the hospital were only 2 sessions, which to me felt inadequate) and having doula help during labor, and that is actually where I ran into conflict with my care providers. They told me to ask the hospital about doulas and the hospital nurses told me to ask my care provider, and nobody could give me any answers and a nurse finally recommended to me against having doulas. She also stated clearly that yes, the cesarean rate was high but this was for the baby's safety, and that if anything happened during labor and the doctor didn't want me to move, I wouldn't be able to move and would have to follow the doctor's orders. This nurse probably didn't realize what a profound impact she had on me. If she had approached their risk-based decision-making a different way, I may have still gone for OB care, but during the entire conversation I felt my questions were not being answered adequately and that I wasn't being supportive. I finally contacted some doulas and also called birth center to ask for their advice and they referred me to Lori - who I eventually chose as my doula and was extremely satisfied with. Through my own searching I also found the awesome Amy Borelli who was extremely helpful and ended up giving us great birth classes. Both doulas gave me references to other women who had proceeded with natural birth, and through these women I came to watch The Business of Being Born and quickly made an appointment with the Birth Center to switch care. You see, as a doctor you learn about the nuts and bolts of complications and many theoretical aspects of labor, but you don't learn the practical stuff, natural methods of pain management, etc. I needed lots of help!
The process went very quickly when it first happened and I did keep a final appointment with my OB because I was VERY nervous about what to tell them. Both Lori and Amy told me it was no big deal, but I didn't realize what no-big-deal it was till I broke it to the OB, who wasn't my primary OB since you rotate through groups at later stages of pregnancy, so maybe that made it easier. I simply told them I was switching care and they asked where they could send the records. No questions, no problems. No big deal. It was actually so uneventful that it felt strange!
I went to the birth center and didn't look back and was extremely satisfied with the care I received there. By the time of my delivery (as you can see in my birth story) I felt so prepared that I think I could have made it through many more hours of labor. Of course, my body decided to give me my baby quicker than I expected, much to my relief, but the expectation of a possibly very long labor was very important to my own preparedness for childbirth.
Switching from OB to Midwife care providers was the hardest decision, but easiest action, I took during pregnancy. Earlier in pregnancy I had considered the Wilmington Birth Center and went for a tour (which I highly recommend), but we also found out that there were a few potential complications to the pregnancy - low lying placenta, question of gestational diabetes, and cyst in my uterus (all of which completely resolved or never came to be). I also felt strange that as a pediatrician I was considering midwifery care - some of the
pediatricians I had worked with admired when people did it but stated clearly that they could never go to a midwife themselves. That statement affected me pretty profoundly. Plus when I met my very nice OB she said that yes, I could do natural birth in her environment, no problem.
Pregnancy was initially pretty uneventful - I had my scheduled visits with the OB once a month and got all the testing done. Little by little it started to look lower risk - I felt great, the "cyst" disappeared, the placenta moved to a normal position, I passed my 3- hour glucose test with flying colors, and I was gaining weight appropriately, and working out regularly, but by the time I reached 28 weeks gestation I felt as clueless about how to approach deliver as I did when I first found out I was pregnant. I began to explore options of more structured childcare classes (the ones at the hospital were only 2 sessions, which to me felt inadequate) and having doula help during labor, and that is actually where I ran into conflict with my care providers. They told me to ask the hospital about doulas and the hospital nurses told me to ask my care provider, and nobody could give me any answers and a nurse finally recommended to me against having doulas. She also stated clearly that yes, the cesarean rate was high but this was for the baby's safety, and that if anything happened during labor and the doctor didn't want me to move, I wouldn't be able to move and would have to follow the doctor's orders. This nurse probably didn't realize what a profound impact she had on me. If she had approached their risk-based decision-making a different way, I may have still gone for OB care, but during the entire conversation I felt my questions were not being answered adequately and that I wasn't being supportive. I finally contacted some doulas and also called birth center to ask for their advice and they referred me to Lori - who I eventually chose as my doula and was extremely satisfied with. Through my own searching I also found the awesome Amy Borelli who was extremely helpful and ended up giving us great birth classes. Both doulas gave me references to other women who had proceeded with natural birth, and through these women I came to watch The Business of Being Born and quickly made an appointment with the Birth Center to switch care. You see, as a doctor you learn about the nuts and bolts of complications and many theoretical aspects of labor, but you don't learn the practical stuff, natural methods of pain management, etc. I needed lots of help!
The process went very quickly when it first happened and I did keep a final appointment with my OB because I was VERY nervous about what to tell them. Both Lori and Amy told me it was no big deal, but I didn't realize what no-big-deal it was till I broke it to the OB, who wasn't my primary OB since you rotate through groups at later stages of pregnancy, so maybe that made it easier. I simply told them I was switching care and they asked where they could send the records. No questions, no problems. No big deal. It was actually so uneventful that it felt strange!
I went to the birth center and didn't look back and was extremely satisfied with the care I received there. By the time of my delivery (as you can see in my birth story) I felt so prepared that I think I could have made it through many more hours of labor. Of course, my body decided to give me my baby quicker than I expected, much to my relief, but the expectation of a possibly very long labor was very important to my own preparedness for childbirth.