How to choose an OB?

[nomnom]

It might sound a little strange, but I don't have regular OB. When I was a student, I went to the student clinic. After I got on DH's insurance, I saw one OB locally who I didn't like and another who I did like, but the latter seems to work mostly with reproductive medicine (getting women KU) and surgery. I'd like to avoid surgery, thank you very much.

How do I choose an OB who will respect my preferences and make good decisions for what is currently a twin pregnancy?

[ginnyjones82]

Do you have any friends or family to ask where they go? I'd start there. I also see women posting on Facebook all the time in local groups looking for suggestions. Not sure how I feel about that approach tho.

[nomnom]

Ummm, nope. No friends or family around here that are concerned about such things. It's a college town and most of my friends are more worried about graduating. I have no close friends in the area because everyone leaves after a few years.

A couple of women at work suggested a private practice in the area, but that practice doesn't generally take newly pregnant women unless they've already seen the doctor before and she doesn't seem to cover high-risk anyhow.

I might be able to check in with one person I went to school with here. She just had her second baby VBAC. That seems like the doctor is probably at least somewhat open minded.

[amshark]

To begin with, I would find an OB practice that is affiliated with a hospital that has a level 3 NICU (or higher). I really liked my OB group and my local hospital, and I thought I wouldn't need anything over a level 2 NICU. Whoops. I spent the first half of my pregnancy getting to know all of the doctors in a practice that is not affiliated with the hospital that has become my new residence.

Fortunately, my MFM is affiliated with this hospital, and I like him as well. I was referred to him by my OB group. As a twin mom, you'll likely be seeing an MFM too - and you'll be more likely than the average PG woman to need to NICU.

In general, I find most of my doctors by first creating a list from my health insurance provider's website, and then asking my mom (who's a nurse at my local hospital) and other friends and family for opinions & recommendations.

***ETA ***
I posted before I saw your comment about local friends & family not being a good resource for you nomnom - I hope the rest of my post is still useful.

[nomnom]

amshark There's a level-three NICU half a mile from my house. It's the only one within at least an hour of here. That's why I say I have very little choice about my clinic :-).

The OBs there are rated pretty well by patients. The MFMs, not so much. There are only three. I suppose I can call the hospital and ask them if anyone else in the area (outside the clinic that is part of the hospital) is affiliated with the hospital. Didn't think about that part before. I think it is unlikely, though, that there are any other MFMs in the area.

I guess even if I choose one of the OBs (and MFMs) with the hospital, how do I choose which one of them? There are something like ten. Does it matter what the website says their interests are?

ETA: Actually, I should check my insurance. Some of the doctors at this hospital/clinic are covered and some are not.

[ginnyjones82]

Just thought of it also, I've used healthgrades.com when searching for an Ortho Dr.

[IFinTN]

I wish I had a better "system" of picking...but I just looked at the pictures and as PP suggested, their healthgrades review or other reviews like google and just set up the appt. based on who felt like a good match. I got lucky and I really like my OB. As for the MFM, it sounds like your choices are going to be limited so you'll just have to make do with what you've got affiliated with the hospital near you.

[jro1602]

Are there any well-known teaching institutions in your area? I've always chosen an OB/GYN that is in or associated with a well known hospital system in the area (similar to what amshark said above). I feel like if they are a teaching hospital they *should* be staying up to date with current research and practice.

I didn't realize until recentley that it is actually very rare to have your OB deliver your baby. If you go to a group then it's normally whoever is on call. I was a little disappointed by this at first but my doctor explained that as you get closer to delivery you actually start rotating every visit so you at least meet every Doc in the group. Not sure what happens if you meet one that you can't stand!

[ProfessorChaos]

I think considering your birth and neonatal care, then working backwards to find a good OB is the way to go. We spent a lot of time choosing which hospital we wanted to be at, but our situation was very different from yours. Once you have your hospital picked out, you could even call L&D and ask who they recommend. I think Ecarabeo, who is an OB herself, suggested I do that (she's in labor, btw! ). Finding local FB groups is another good way to go--if we had done that early on, we would have saved ourselves a lot of trouble. It's also important to consider a team vs. nonteam practice, as jro1602 said.

[nomnom]

jro1602 No medical schools around here. I live in a town with a level-III NICU and nothing else for at least an hour in any direction and no major city for at least two hours in any direction. I am a little worried about having a doctor I don't know at the delivery. I'm hoping they won't kick DH out for some reason because I know he'll watch out for me.

ProfessorChaos At my husband's suggestion, I messaged an acquaintance who had two babies in the area and two very different experiences. I decided to go with her recommendation for a doctor who allowed her to do VBAC completely naturally. I figure that's a good sign that the doc would listen to me and about the best information I'm going to get. This corporation is horrible and I don't know that the L&D people would actually be able to recommend anyone specific because "all of their doctors are perfectly qualified to care for me." I've run into that before when I asked for a recommendation.

[katemonster]

If you know where you want to deliver, you could call the hospital and ask to speak with a l&d nurse. I did that, and she told me that weren't really supposed to say but told me where she personally went. I also asked the nurses at my re's office. Also, my city has some magazines that rank best doctors every year. They're rated by other doctors, so that was a starting place. I kept hearing the same two practices from all three sources, so I researched the web sites. Ultimately I chose the smaller one that had all women doctors and a certified water birth Ob. I think it's good to pick a clinic you trust. From there, you can always make appointments with different doctors. Good luck and congrats on the twins!

[cml112]

nomnom We are both having the same thoughts! Doing google searches, it's not easy to find OBs that have MFM listed, but some list conditions (on health grades.com) which could be high risk. I have one friend of a friend that delivered twins around here, but I don't think I'm ready to reach out to such a distant acquaintance this early on.

[doves654]

I asked our RE for recommendations - we really like her and trust her opinion, and had fired my old OB after she didn't understand MFI.

[daydreamernyc]

Do you have many hospitals in your area? If so, I would start with which ones would provide you with the care you might need. For me it is important to have a highly rated nicu.

From there I would start interviewing a few. Ask them real questions about things that matter to you with this pregnancy. Ask them how they manage complications and which MFMs they work with. Also look at all the OBs in the practice since doctors don't work 24/7. You might have someone else delivering your babies.

That should be a good start then it's all about gut feeling.

[nomnom]

daydreamernyc There are two hospitals. Only one has a level-3 NICU. It is the behemoth healthcare foundation in town that is screwing up property taxes and nearly has a monopoly on healthcare. The administration is horrible. The caregivers are the usual mix of good and bad. Because it is such a big organization, interviewing caregivers is not really an option. I don't even have access to them until the appointment. Maybe I'm just not seeing a way around that, but it seems like that is my best bet at this point unless I want to drive a couple of hours (no). I already decided against one of the OBs because the one time I talked to him for an annual exam a few years ago, he didn't seem to be up to date on the latest prenatal care.

[Deleted]

I'm in the same boat as you. My OB that I was seeing before my RE referred me to my RE, and a few months later ended up dropping OB. I also wanted to switch hospitals. So the first thing I did was look at the list from my insurance company, found a couple and did some research. I have one in mind, who does deal with high risk pregnancies and such, and has amazing reviews. So I'm really hoping to get an appointment in. And I know I should call soon, but I've been slacking.
But I found figuring out which hospital I want to go with -> checking my insurance list -> and reading reviews. That has seemed to work for me.