OB in birth center

[medmom]

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I am premed and I "think" that some day I may want to go into OB/GYN. Here's my question. I know that a lot of doc talk about getting tired of doing OB after awhile. I also had a FP tell me that OB/GYN's mostly only do sections and high risk. So, here's my question: As an OB/GYN, if I were to get tired of the intensity as I get older (like 50's), would it be possible to go and work in like a birthing center along side midwives? Where you can do your shift for deliveries and still work in a group and have clinic, but nothing high risk or sections? Or would this be impossible to the the amount of education and malpractice associated with being a physician?
Medmom

 

[Museless]

I don't know about those other hurdles you mentioned, but another would be your philosophy. Patients choosing to deliver in a birth center have a very different approach to the process than those delivering in a hospital. They want very little medical intervention. An example of a birth center couple's birth plan might include:

- no IV
- mother changes positions frequently during labor, walks, labors in shower or tub
- no routine toco monitoring, h/b monitoring provided by fetoscope and only intermittently
- no routine cervical checks for dilation/effacement/station
- no pain meds
- baby to be placed on mother's abdomen and allowed to nurse immediately after birth
- cord not cut until it has stopped pulsating
- placenta allowed to deliver on its own
- no routine pitocin shot after delivery to shrink the uterus

you get the idea. Some of these mothers may not want an ob delivering their baby, as a pro-birth center choice was a pro-midwive choice and they specifically don't want a doctor and all the medical biases they may fear s/he'll have. If you have a birth philosophy in line with the above, however, you may be able to find work. 🙂

 

[toofache32]

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- cord not cut until it has stopped pulsating
...

Huh?

 

[medmom]

Thanks for the reply. As the mother of 3 kids and having had 3 unmedicated vaginal births, I actually do agree with a lot of those theories. I had debated between OB/GYN and a midwife until I went and shadowed 2 c/s and decided that I LOVE the OB/GYN occupation. I loved the c/s and I am hoping to find a balance between traditional values and modern medicine. I know a lot of OB/GYN's get tired and go to only GYN but I think I would rather go to just the "easy" OB that are in birthing centers. I am just wondering if that is even possible.
medmom

 

[Museless]

Originally Posted by Museless
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- cord not cut until it has stopped pulsating
...

Huh?

Immediately after a baby is delivered, the cord has a pulse, as you know. Some people prefer that the cord not be cut until the pressure in it has dipped below the point where there is a palpable pulse, believing that the baby is intended by nature, or by design, as you wish, to receive that blood.

medmom, I wish you luck. When there's a will there's a way, right?

 

[BayAreaOB]

- no IV
- mother changes positions frequently during labor, walks, labors in shower or tub
- no routine toco monitoring, h/b monitoring provided by fetoscope and only intermittently
- no routine cervical checks for dilation/effacement/station
- no pain meds
- baby to be placed on mother's abdomen and allowed to nurse immediately after birth
- cord not cut until it has stopped pulsating
- placenta allowed to deliver on its own
- no routine pitocin shot after delivery to shrink the uterus

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Granted, I am a resident in Northern California, but I routinely have hospital birth plans that read exactly like this list. If this is your own philosophy there are many patients that will seek YOU out someday. Good luck with your future plans.
By the way, this a totally normal way for a healthy women to labor. We insist on a heplock but do everything else pretty regularly. The problem comes when your 43 y/o primip with IVF twins wants to do it this way🙂

 

[tiredmom]

The problem comes when your 43 y/o primip with IVF twins wants to do it this way🙂[/QUOTE]

Or the patient with 3 previous C/S, no successful VBACs?