Firing My Doctor - Part 1

I did not receive compensation or free products for this review -- I just really like these vitamins. This post does include affiliate links. If you order something, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. And thanks so much for clicking!

Having a baby is life-changing.  There are immediately so many choices to make (and it's only the beginning!) and one of the most crucial is deciding on your birth provider.  What happens when your assumptions regarding this decision are turned upside down?  How do you cope and where do you turn for help?


I hope to do just that in this three-part series, Firing My Doctor, where I share what we did when faced with this situation.


"hey, You...stop that!" by ElmWolf, used under CC BY 2.0 / Text bar added by Syncopated Mama

We were pregnant and knew we wanted to bring our more natural lifestyle into our pregnancy/birth journey, but I assumed that could all be done within the “normal” medical world.

At our first appointment at week ten, we met with my OB/GYN of the past fifteen years, seated in front of his desk so that we could discuss what to expect in the upcoming months.  The humor which kept me an established patient was on in full force and he took the time to answer our already-long list of questions.

G received all sorts of kudos when he showed the doctor my bottle of prenatal vitamins.  The doctor was impressed with their quality and composition and said the only thing we should add was DHA. 


By the way, the vitamins were awesome.  They didn’t make me sick or give me any other issues and I highly recommend them.


 I also took iron, which did not give me any constipation issues at all and I recommend them, as well.



 I took these for the DHA, and having grown such a big, healthy baby, I’d say they did the trick, as well.
http://www.vitacost.com/vitacost-complete-efa-180-softgels

After our chat with the doctor, we were feeling pretty in sync and headed to the examining room for the next portion of our appointment.

He did an ultrasound just to make sure everything looked good, which it did, but then he dated Gv younger than she was (I’d kept track of things, so I knew exactly which day she was conceived, so the date difference threw me a bit).  We chatted a bit more and he informed me I was high risk, due to my “advanced maternal age” (I was 38) and brushed me off a bit with my questions about having a natural birth.

He basically said that if I was crazy enough to want to try birthing without drugs, he’d give me a chance to try it out for a while.  He said he thought it was insane for any woman to give birth that way, and that he’d “cut me if he needed to and wouldn’t if I didn’t need it.” (This response followed my episiotomy question.)

He also said that he had the final say in any decision because (chuckling) he was the doctor.

We left that appointment starting to wonder if things would be able to go the way we’d hoped, after all.  Plus, I was starting to experience some anxiety due to the dating difference between the ultrasound and my date.  Of course, the doctor had implied that my date was wrong, because the equipment doesn’t lie.

Comments (10)

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I'm intrigued to read the next instalment now! My babies were IVF so I knew right down to the hour when they had been conceived - but our scans always measured them as being older. It's a bit silly really because it's all based on the size of an average baby and how yours compares so if you 'know' then I think they should just use that day to work out the estimated delivery date!
1 reply · active 553 weeks ago
How interesting that even with IVF, your babies measured as being a bit older! That just proves that while technology is wonderful, it's not the absolute expert in every case. Thanks for stopping by and saying hi and I hope you read and enjoyed the other installments of my series!

From: notifications@intensedebatemail.com
To: lisahealy@outlook.com
Subject: Syncopated Mama - New comment on: Firing My Doctor - Part 1
Great article. I firmly believe that you can and should fire a doctor if they are not living up to your expectations. After all, we pay them for a service. If we didn't like the service at a restaurant, we would not go back, so why go back to a doctor who is not providing you with what you need? I look forward to reading more.

Thanks for linking to the In and Out of the Kitchen Link party!
Thanks for sharing & linking up at "Inspired By Me Mondays"...I am a Holistic Nutritionist and use vitamins/herbs for a lot of ailments. Had one home birth, that was lovely too :) http://www.parentingandhomeschoolinginfaith.com (Hope you'll join us again next week!! Monday to Friday)
My story is very different than yours. My son is now 41 years old. My doctor at the time told me he would be born between Oct. 31 and Nov.15. (in those days they did not have the measures that they now have to figure the date closer) But I knew different because my husband was in the military. He had only been home for a short week before he was sent back out again. (he flew planes off air craft carriers) I went till Dec. 18, and after more than 27 hours of hard labor I was given a C-section. My baby was huge. I found another doctor and learned I had a 'tilted' uterus and could not have had a natural birth at all. It was an awful experience for me and I do not even remember the first 2 days of my son's life because of the drugs I was given for pain etc. I was not able to breast feed him till almost a week later.
I hope things go much better for you.
1 reply · active 503 weeks ago
Wow. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with me, Roxie! I am so sorry your son's birth turned out that way. How crazy that you didn't learn until later about your tilted uterus - you'd think that would have been obvious early on. Things did go much better for me - it wasn't a walk in the park, but my not-so-little 9+ pounder arrived in a friendlier way. I'm so glad you stopped by and left your comment today!

From: notifications@intensedebatemail.com
To: lisahealy@outlook.com
Subject: Syncopated Mama - New comment on: Firing My Doctor - Part 1
Oh no!! Firing him was EXACTLY the right thing to do!!
The days of us believing Doctors are gods are long gone, buddy.
Here from HomeMAtters.
1 reply · active 503 weeks ago
Doctors definitely have my respect, because that's an awful lot of responsibility to be placed on someone's shoulders, but they're just people, like the rest of us! I know my doctor was perfectly competent and I'd always enjoyed his bedside manner, but he just obviously wasn't the right fit for me any longer. Thanks for stopping by to say hello!

From: notifications@intensedebatemail.com
To: lisahealy@outlook.com
Subject: Syncopated Mama - New comment on: Firing My Doctor - Part 1
Found your pregnancy posts! EEEEEK his "cut you" answer is SOOOOO not okay... *cringe* This feels like a caricature of a traditional doctor! So upsetting that it was real life. =/
1 reply · active 481 weeks ago
Yeah, there were some comment doozies, for sure. I will say that he was very much a traditional doctor and that I'd thought he had wonderful bedside manner, up to then. He was always cracking these crazy jokes and being silly and that is completely what put me at ease whenever I had to go for my yearly checkups. And if I'd been fine with all the traditional medical options, then I'm sure we would have continued to get along famously, so I still have good things to say about him, for anyone looking for that kind of experience (which is fine, just not me). I'm just so glad that G was so supportive and that we followed what felt right for us, because I think staying there with him would have created an even more stressful pregnancy (because, gee whiz, pregnancy is super-stressful enough!)

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