When will these docs learn that their convenience is rightfully not the mother’s primary concern?!?!

“If I have the baby while you’re stuck in traffic, then I probably didn’t need you there anyhow.”

Or, “Then maybe you need to be more available, Doc.”

Or, “Then maybe you should turn down your hospital privileges at that facility because it’s too far away.”

Or, “Maybe I should call the hospital administration there and ask how often you’ve missed a birth because you were stuck in traffic.”

Or, “Oh, do you really think my labor will be that rapid and easy? Awesome! Then I’ll just birth at home!”

Or, “Well, you ARE going to be at the hospital the whole time I labor, right? You aren’t going to wait for the hospital to call you when I’m 8cm,right? Because if there’s an emergency, you’d want to be right there, right? For safety?”

I could go on, but why? Sheez.

“Well then doc, that’s a bit less cash in your pocket! OUCH!!!!”
Idiot.

This is another one of mine. When I was pregnant the first time, I specifically picked an OB to deliver at the hospital where my stepson was born, since my husband said it was great. When I was six months along, my OB started telling me that he wanted me to register at a different hospital, closer to his house. I went there once after he suggested it, and it was filthy and the staff was rude. One morning when I was about 7 months, I was home sick (threw up CONSTANTLY that whole pregnancy), and the doc called and asked if I was going to change hospitals. When I said no, he told me to find a new doctor. I was furious! And, of course, the doctor he referred me to refused to take me because I was too far along.

I ended up with the doctor who delivered my stepson, the one I had wanted all along (he wasn’t on my insurance before, but I got new insurance.) I felt so lucky until he cut me open for no reason.

I’ve had 3 babies in hospital with the doctor NOT in the room. Uhmmm..they know how to handle it. At least if the nurses are trained. I did have one nurse NOT catch, the baby bounced on the bed…but you know, the baby is fine (and is a bright 7 year old).

I watched a baby born in the hospital with no medical staff around. The nurse had checked mom and told her that she wasn’t ready. 2 minutes later mom started to bear down and I sent dad after the nurse…who argued with him in the hall telling him again “She’s not ready, I just checked her.”
Dad made it into the room just in time to watch his daughter slide calmly into the world. I thought that the nurse would faint dead away when I peeked into the hall and said “Could we get someone in here to clean up this baby?”
Seriously, you would have thought I had announced to her that the room was on fire.

Personally, I’d be more concerned about the possibility of having a baby while I’M stuck in traffic. There’s (presumably) other hospital staff, but only one woman who can deliver that child.

Probably the same thing that would happen if the doc were stuck in traffic while a human body is doing its other autonomic functions such as breathing, beating the heart, and so forth.
The physiologic processes do not need an overseer in order to proceed naturally.

Well, um, I’ve pushed out a baby without a doctor in the room two times. So clearly it’s not THAT big of a deal.

I can see how some folks might find this comment off, but its more a sign of how obstetrics must be practiced than some bad comment.

I used to practice in a city where there were two major hospitals that did obstetrics, and I delivered at only one of them. My office was very near that hospital. I occasionally had a patient that wanted to deliver at the other, and I nicely told them that I didn’t deliver there, and that I’d be happy to refer them to another doc that practiced at that hospital.

Its not all about each individual patient – its about all the patients. If I had delivered at both hospitals, and therefore run all over town all the time, my ability to take care of all the patients in my care would have been severely hindered. Because I delivered at only one I was able to spend more time with each patient. As such, I had no pressure to schedule inductions and could wait out long labors with much less issue than doctors that had to cover many hospitals.

There are many sides to this coin, and a doctor delivering at one hospital is far more likely to be able to deliver the kind of care that most of this site’s patrons advocate.

If I were the patient:

“No problem. I’m sure the nurses on staff there are just as capable as the nurses at the other hospital. And what’s stopping you from getting stuck behind a massive wreck on the way to the other hospital?”