Scuff Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 If you had a homebirth, how did your pediatrician handle it? I love our ped. She's friendly and knows her stuff. But she is more mainstream. She tolerates our off-the-path choices, though I know she'd prefer we choose differently. I winder what her reaction would be if we went with this choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer in MI Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 We had a home birth and our ped never cared! I didn't tell him beforehand though. he treated my dd the same as if she had been born in a hospital. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Our ped didn't bat an eye. They want to see the baby within 24 hours if at all possible...so my daughter was born Wednesday afternoon and we went to the ped on Thursday I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NicAnn Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 We had a home birth and our ped never cared! I didn't tell him beforehand though. he treated my dd the same as if she had been born in a hospital. Ditto. Most peds don't care what's been done after the baby already is here. With this one, we won't even see a ped until 6 weeks. Our midwife handles everything until that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 With our first homebirth, the midwives required that our ped sign some sort of statement; I can't remember exactly what it was, but it basically acknowledged that she was okay with the homebirth and that if we had to transfer to a hospital where she had privileges, she wanted to see the baby. She never batted an eye at the homebirth and was completely okay with all of my non-mainstream ideas. Per our midwives' requirement, we took the baby to see the ped at either 48 or 72 hours (I can't remember); it was completely unnecessary, except that they did his PKU test then (though the MW could have done it when she came back to check on us as well). With our second and third homebirths, the midwife came back to check on us and to do the PKU test, and we didn't do a ped visit until quite a bit later, as there was no reason to do one. The MW kept tabs on the babies (and me) for a few weeks, and I did weight checks at home, but I was also pretty familiar with what a newborn was supposed to look like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momacacia Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 First homebirth, didn't meet ped. until a few days after birth for first check-up. Didn't phase her--I loved the ped. actually. Commented on what a perfect head dd had, "like a c-section baby." Yup, pretty sure she wasn't c-section there in our apartment bathroom with birthpool! :eek: :lol: Second homebirth, new ped. knew, made a comment or two (she was formerly homebirth friendly), but didn't phase her to take the newborn on as a patient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaceyinLA Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 He seemed supportive (though deep down he might've thought I was a loon). He was also supportive of other not-so-mainstream things I chose to do or not do. Dd saw him while she was here with dgs. He was a little more pushy, but still fairly laid back overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyMSews Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Our peds have had no problem at all. In our state, the midwife can do all the basic newborn stuff, including the pku test, and since we don't vax, it is usually around 6 weeks that the ped likes to see us, just to establish baby as a patient, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hypatia. Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 My younger 3 were born at home and are seen at Family Practice in the local military hospital. I usually took them in at about 2 weeks and none of the docs ever commented on where they were born. With DD1, her ped at the time wanted to repeat the newborn screen (it had already been done by my midwife) but I just said no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forty-two Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Our pediatrician wouldn't take us :glare:. Even though homebirth and midwives were legal and regulated in our state. Heck, Medicaid covered our homebirth mw. So I had to go to this ped who took *everyone*, overbooked like crazy, so you had to wait 3 hours to get seen. I hated it. Kept the old ped - it was a group practice, actually - for dd5, and our particular doc thought it was ridiculous, but them's the rules. We could have switched back at that point - dd3'd been seen by someone "official" :glare: - but we moved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevilla Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Our ped thought it was great and has homebirthed herself :). We love her office. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommymilkies Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 For our first homebirth, our pediatrician had 2 homebirths herself and was VERY supportive. Then we moved and our next pediatrician did not know until after the birth, but was supportive, amazed, and thoroughly intrigued. She was also supportive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeganCupcake Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I'm not even sure mine knew where baby was born and gave no indication that they cared. My midwife did all the normal newborn care stuff (metabolic screen, weight checks, etc.), and my babies didn't go to the doctor themselves until they were 2 months or so old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Our Dr's wife had homebirths and the other Dr in the office had her own homebirth so it wasn't a big deal. I guess he used to make a house call to see the babe, but he has slowed down in the last few years. So, he told me to call, say we had a homebirth and he would see the baby for a 48 hour check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abbeyej Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I'd have zero qualms telling our current ped. I don't know what he and his wife chose, but given that I already home school and have radically delayed our vaccinations, I don't think he'd be surprised (even if he doesn't already know that dd was born at home unassisted -- I haven't hidden that, but it also hasn't come up). That said, I was anxious about it with the ped we had when dd was born. I just didn't talk to him about the birth at all before dd was born -- it never came up. If he had asked, I *was* seeing an OB (occasionally) and could have mentioned that. When dd was born at home (planned unassisted), I fibbed and said we simply hadn't made it to the hospital as this second labor had been much quicker (all true -- 13 hours is much quicker than 39 and I had a hospital to go to if I had ever found it necessary), and once she was born and obviously healthy, I saw no reason to take her to the hospital and expose her to all of those germs (also entirely true). He just laughed. Turned out his brother was born the same way! ;) And he agreed entirely about the germs. ;) (Since we hadn't had a midwife, I also needed him to handle some of the neonatal testing. The only problem there was that his nurses weren't used to it and initially misfiled some of the paperwork.) That said, *if* I were doing it again, I would be honest about the planned home birth. ... I gave answers before that I felt were truthful -- simply edited -- but I wouldn't do that now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elfknitter.# Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Our ped had no problem with it and his office was familiar with my mw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jennsmile Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Ours sees lots of homebirth babies, not a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gentlemommy Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 We are insanely lucky. Our ped knows and loves our midwife. :001_smile: He advocates for a lot of natural choices, breast feeding, home birth, alternative medicine, homeopathy, nutritional healing, chiropractics (he has a chiropractor in his office, and sometimes, that is the first line of defense that he 'prescribes'). He fully supports our choice to not vaccinate. When I brought my first dd there at six months, he asked if she was still waking to nurse at night. Fearing a lecture, I mumbled that yes, she was, because she was still in our bed. Imagine my surprise when he said "oh good! Keep her there as long as you can, that's the best place for babies" :D We have moved since we started going to him, but I can not bring myself to change peds. He is SO worth the hour drive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer in MI Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 We are insanely lucky. Our ped knows and loves our midwife. :001_smile: He advocates for a lot of natural choices, breast feeding, home birth, alternative medicine, homeopathy, nutritional healing, chiropractics (he has a chiropractor in his office, and sometimes, that is the first line of defense that he 'prescribes'). He fully supports our choice to not vaccinate. When I brought my first dd there at six months, he asked if she was still waking to nurse at night. Fearing a lecture, I mumbled that yes, she was, because she was still in our bed. Imagine my surprise when he said "oh good! Keep her there as long as you can, that's the best place for babies" :DWe have moved since we started going to him, but I can not bring myself to change peds. He is SO worth the hour drive! Are you in my area? I would love a doctor like that. Ours moved a few months ago and we miss him! He supported all my parenting decisions! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 My ped didn't care. However, when my ds was born and I took him in within the 48 hr window, only his partner was available. She was horrible! She accused me of not having had any prenatal care because in her mind a midwife doesn't count. She railed at me for having declined the eye ointment, Vit K, and Hep B shots. She told me to my face, "You endangered his life by not having proper maternity care and now you are endangering his life by refusing to give him proper medical care. Make no doubt that he will go blind if you don't give him the ointment and if you leave without him getting the Hep B shot, he will die." Yeah. there I stood less than 24 hours after giving birth with her yelling at me. At that point I simply picked up my baby, and walked out. I didn't say a word. My DH told the Dr. we would not be coming back. We never did. My current ped didn't even blink an eye when I told him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 By the time I had chosen a home birth (third child), we had switched to a family practice physician. I chose him because he was much better informed on breastfeeding issues than our previous two pediatricians. While he is mainstream himself, he hasn't batted an eyelash at many of our alternative choices. He didn't have a problem with home birth. Also, since our preferred back up hospital was not where he had privileges, he helped us find a supportive pediatrician there who would check the baby out and be able to discharge our baby from that hospital, should it have become necessary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 I prefer family doctors over peds. Ours have had no problem. Two of our current doctors go to church with us, so they are very familiar with our family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Momof3littles Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 We used a family practice doc. He is not at all "crunchy" but is a family practice doc who still delivers babies even though he's not an OB. He's known as the "male midwife" at the hospital because so many of his moms go unmedicated. So he isn't really crunchy, but I know he has issues with the way birth tends to be handled. He is also good friends with another doc who used to be in the same practice with him, and she was a homebirthing, sling using, extended nursing, cosleeping mom. He didn't bat an eye. While he was never a "crunchy" doc, he was always, always respectful of parent choice on vaccinations and so forth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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