A Healer’s Geste

OB education

Well, I haven’t seen a doctor yet. :) I had an “OB education” appointment this morning. However, the nurse did not insult my intelligence by telling me about drugs or smoking or drinking…she didn’t mention caffeine, she said “you can eat tuna, just don’t eat it every day….put your seatbelt under your bump when you get a bump….” She gave me the papers to waive HIV testing, in a voice that said “I know you won’t” she asked if I’d want the quad screening or cystic fibrosis testing, she said they don’t hardly do the amnio– testing anymore, she glanced over my medical history chart I had to fill out before the appointment and just confirmed, “So, no health problems? No genetic birth defects in your family? In your husband’s? K”

All in all, it was just fine. They were a little more rigid about their samples and weighing…Fran used paper cups and had a scale in the bathroom and you just went in there to do that all yourself when you arrived. APW has instructions with 6 steps for getting samples and made me step on the scale with the nurse taking it down right there. :| I’m not sure which is worse — someone else seeing the scale or having to verbally admit your weight.

I do like the midwife atmosphere of office in an old home, with the exam room a back bedroom. She sits at a table, you sit in a chair, there’s homey furniture in the rooms, carpet on the floor, and it’s all very relaxed. The receptionist knows you and greets you when you walk in, wants to see and maybe hold the baby when you come in after the birth, even says hi at the grocery store. The midwife is often sitting on the waiting room couch or at a dining room table waiting for you, even though you’re 2 minutes early. Then, having nothing really to talk about for your 10 minute appointment, wants to know what’s new or going on in your life and tells you what she’s up to outside her practice. If you want, though, for the routine visits you can walk in and walk out within 15 minutes — unless, of course, said receptionist double books your appointment time because she can’t use her scheduling software .

However, I can also appreciate the beauty of a well-run, organized, efficient organization. Everyone has their specific task, and they do it then pass you on to the next person. I checked in, filled in the paperwork, returned it, got my appointment order, waited 5 minutes, the nurse called, did the preliminaries, took me into an office, did the appointment, then sent me to the checkout desks, where several ladies were waiting at various booths to go over billing and scheduling the next appointment. Then I went down to the first floor into the lab and had blood drawn (walking in and out in under 10 minutes). Then I was out the door and on my way home. Although I talked to four different people, and it wasn’t even an actual OB appointment, it was all done highly efficiently and everything was exceedingly organized. The waiting room, halls, bathrooms, and offices are all nicely decorated with art on the walls and minimal drug ads (unlike urgent care offices, the only other kind I’ve been in for 14 years, which are littered with drug ads).

So, overall, I was decently impressed. I also learned that my next appointment, my first OB appointment (and you mothers know what that encompasses), will be with a woman, so that was a pleasant relief. They didn’t patronize me, disbelieve my moral life, assume I was on drugs or battered at home, ask if I wanted to be pregnant, or anything else to make me bristle. The only thing was the nurse thinking she was being funny when she said of twins, “which we hope it’s not!” Yet I didn’t have the guts to say, “Why not?” So I can’t complain. :)