Robyn.Bowles.es

Two weeks ago I reported that I was awaiting labs which I am thrilled to report were all COMPLETELY NORMAL! Yay! I didn’t think they’d be abnormal, but it was reassuring nonetheless to see it on paper.

We saw the doctor again yesterday. I had not been looking forward to it after the confrontation of our last visit. I had spent several hours last week researching and preparing references for my reasons to decline several of the tests she wanted to do. The visit went better than I had anticipated. We did our best to be polite, friendly and respectful and again declined the ultrasound and also the fetal monitoring which here is routine to do at 37 weeks (but unnecessary if there are no complications or indications for it). She didn’t argue this time, but asked us to sign a statement saying that she offered and we declined. We were happy to do so.

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At least this time she actually asked me about baby’s movement and contractions, and felt the top of my uterus to make sure it was where it should be.

I was ok with not having to pull out my research notes, but Samuel once again spoke up for me and as we were readying ourselves to leave, he handed it to her and respectfully informed her that I’m an OB nurse in the U.S. with several years of experience with doctors who practiced very differently, and that I had prepared this document to explain why I would decline certain things.

She didn’t seem surprised or offended, and responded by saying that she couldn’t practice medicine she didn’t know how to practice.

She gave me orders to repeat the urine collection and do more blood tests, to schedule a visit with the anesthesiologist at the hospital who will review the coagulation studies she ordered, and to see her again in three weeks if I haven’t delivered.

I do hope I deliver before then as we’ve decided to make yet anotherchange in our care: I’m past the pre-term stage and the risk for Isabela to need the NICU is nil (this doctor practices at the only private hospital with NICU and is why we chose to switch to her – just in case). However, a friend just recently delivered there and had a very difficult experience on many levels. We’ve heard negative things about it from a couple of others, too. We also just learned that the University Hospital has recently changed their NICU visiting policy to allow parents 24-hour access to their babies, so if a NICU were needed, we’d want her there where we could be with her all the time. All that to say, we’d choose to go to our original choice for hospital (Sagrada Corazon), which is just a few blocks from the University Hospital, and where three others of our friends have delivered with positive experiences.

I didn’t say any of this to our doctor, I didn’t want any more lectures or arguments. I am confident in my knowledge and in our decisions which, although from my blog may seem to have all over the place, have been made after a lot of careful thought, advice-seeking and prayer. But I certainly would not recommend the crazy path we’ve followed to anyone else here unless they, too, had the knowledge, experience and support that we’ve had!

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