OB, Oh Boy!

Well, yesterday was an adventure. I had my appointment with my backup OB for the GBS test. I have white coat hypertension. I told them that, but they still insisted on using the 138/90 reading to tell me that I have Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (PIH) and to use that as proof that my midwife was a nut and I was putting myself and my baby at risk. So, we get there, the doctor comes in the room, doesn't say hi, anything and announces "Well, you've got high blood pressure." He had my records from my midwife in his hands showing no history of hypertension, but that didn't matter. He started in on me about how I needed a sonogram and a blood test etc. etc. etc. I started questioning him on his reasoning and he got visibly angry. He asked me what he was doing there if I wasn't going to listen to him anyhow. I told him I was there to get a GBS swab and thats it. After about twenty minutes of him insulting my intelligence and me insisting he clarify his reasoning (all of this while I'm sitting pantsless on the table) he informs me he's scheduling the tests and bids me goodbye.

I called my midwife from the exam room. She told me just to take the sonogram and the blood tests "just to shut him up." So I did. I gave Dr. Dick (not his real name) the MW's phone number so he could call her. Well what do you know, the blood tests came back perfect, no toxemia here, and we spent thirty minutes with a sonographer, watching the LO play with her toes.

The MW and I were on the phone off and on throughout the evening. It turns out I managed to find a misogynist obstetrician. He told the midwife over the phone that he's just not used to women coming into his practice and telling him what they will or will not do! After all, he's a DOCTOR. Apparently he didn't get the "My Uterus, My Rules" memo.

My MW called me last night after they called her with the test results. I knew last night that everything was fine. The sono put baby weighing at 5lbs 2oz., which as we all know can be incredibly inaccurate, but even so thats still within the normal range.

Dr. Dick called me this morning to tell me the blood tests came back fine. (duh) But baby was boarder line small which to him is an indicator of early PIH. He made sure to impart to me that pregnancy was incredibly dangerous for all involved and that even though I'm fine now, BAM dead baby card. (Is there an OB Bingo out there?) He asked me if I would be coming back. I told him "Honestly, not if I can avoid it. I wasn't impressed with your bedside manner or your acceptance of pregnancy as a normal, physiologic process." He then informed me that I wasn't going to make him feel bad and that if I wanted to be abusive towards him then that was my business. He hung up on me.

What a great guy.

I went to see this doctor on the recommendation of a friend. She had three easy pregnancies and found him to be pretty hands off. At our first visit, I told him I was planning a home birth and I gave him all of the info for the midwife. He scheduled my 20 weeks sonogram and gave his blessing for me to go to the MW for the next several appointments. When my 20 weeks ultrasound came back without abnormalities, I cancelled my follow up with him and went back to my MW. I hadn't seen him since the first trimester. Yesterday was partly the result of me not going back to him after that sonogram. He was mad. Then it comes out that as a woman, I'm not supposed to question the Doctor/God's judgement. After all, what do I know, I've never had a baby before whereas he's delivered hundreds. In the end I got my GBS swab, they're going to call the MW with the results next week. All of my tests proved him wrong, my blood pressure was a fluke, but that wasn't enough. He had to play the dead baby card during my morning coffee. During yesterday's "exchange" he told me that I had made up his mind on this whole homebirth thing, he was never going to support another one. I thought to myself, who would want you to?