Hospital Birth in Sheridan or Buffalo

[kchara]

I was PLANNING a homebirth, but due to unforseen finances, I'm not going to be able to pay for my midwife. Insurance sucks. So, anyway, we're down to a hospital birth, and we're looking between Sheridan and Buffalo. Has anyone had hospital births in either town? What are the L&D wards like? Can you recommend an OB? (We're thinking of Dr. Gill and his wife, since she's at least a midwife. Any experiences?) What about doulas? Any suggestions? We live in Buffalo, but I'm due in August, so road conditions shouldn't be a problem getting to Sheridan. I've heard Casper is just horrible, so I wasn't even going to bother to look there. Any help would be GREATLY appriciated!

[elanorh]

Hey,

Sorry I didn't check this board for awhile ....

I've given birth at Sheridan Memorial twice, no problems at all - natural birth, no interventions. They had a quite supportive of NCB birthing class, and the policy is supposedly no episiotomies (I don't know whether they happen sometimes per doctor discretion or not; I haven't had them though).

My OB is Dr. Scott. I chose him because he's my aunt's OB and my cousin's, and was quite practical with my cousin's unplanned UC about a decade ago. My aunt had five NCBs so I figured she'd choose a gynecologist who was 'down' with that. That said, I've friends who use Dr. Gill and seem to love him too - I think that it's possible (amazing, but possible) that we might have two midwife-minded OBs here? I don't think either will deliver breech. Dr. Scott had a CNM in practice with him for awhile before she decided to go back to CNP and works for Dr. Gill now (better hours with a wee one I think).

If I were you, starting fresh, I'd contact both the Buffalo and Sheridan hospitals and ask the c/s rates there. And then maybe check with Dr. Gill and Dr. Scott, ask the same question. Bearing in mind that Sheridan (and Buffalo too I suppose) have a no-VBAC policy, so their c/s rates will be skewed a bit from having to do c/s for all their former c/s clients.

We've had two births and one m/c with Dr. Scott. He's very practical, nonjudgmental, unbiased. He's got a statue of a breastfeeding mother in one of his exam rooms (small countertop one). He's been supportive of breastfeeding past a year, and of the elimination diet I've been on with both girls. He didn't blink an eye over us wanting a natural birth, and not wanting to circ.

We've actually been talking about traveling to MT to birth if we have another, because the hospital birth costs so much more here (check that out too, you may want to consider driving to Gillette, when I checked they were cheaper than Sheridan, Buffalo, or Casper - Billings is about half as much as giving birth in Sheridan, I kid you not). BUT, both dh and I really like Dr. Scott, so it would be sad for us to give birth without him there.

I should add - my family births quickly; #1 was born after four hours in the hospital (she was posterior but turned at the end); #2 was born after 45 minutes at the hospital (maybe, probably less). So the staff really didn't have time to interfere alot. I've had good nurses, and annoying ones. A great LPN reminded me about proper positioning with #2 (I was nursing as if she were a toddler, instead of tummy-to-tummy). But there are always the nurses who tell you not to let the baby nurse so much or "you'll be a human pacifier" etc. My first L&D nurse was great, very relaxed, "Obviously what you're doing is working well for you." The second one was, I think, just scrambling to catch up because she hadn't thought I'd be as far along as I was. Ha.

We do vax, so didn't deal with that at the hospital. It's hospital policy to do pitocin with the third stage of labor (placenta delivery). We didn't know better with #1, but with #2, told Dr. Scott we wanted delayed clamping and no pit. The nurse bustled in to do it anyway and he was VERY firm with her, told her to get it out of the room, it better not be on my bill, etc. etc. He's good with "baby straight to breast," too. Didn't push about due dates (#1 was 10 days early, #2 was on her due date). I don't know if he gets pushy later (that's I suppose another question to put to both OB's). And, he asked after #2, whether I was happy with the birth and did he do a good job.

I like Dr. Scott more than the hospital. I hate the "every hour on the hour" check they do on mom/baby (they seem to time it so they check babe one hour, mom the next, and I get no sleep at all); the nursery nurse did help me rig the bed so #2 could sleep next to me in bed though, so that's nice.

So basically I'd like a homebirth with Dr. Scott.

ETA:
I just noticed you're pregnant with twins -- definitely bring twin delivery up with both OBs and see what they say. I think a lot of OBs default to c/s with twins .... I don't know what either OB would do, per se. Maybe see how often they've delivered twins vaginally? And what they 'expect' in order to do that, vs. c/s?

[kchara]

Thanks for your response! We went with Dr. Gill, I had my first appt with Brigit, his midwife/wife, she's the one who actually found the twins. I forgot to ask about their c-section rate, b/c I was still freaking out about the twins, LOL but she did say that right now, they don't consider me high risk, which is a HUGE plus, and that as long as Baby A is head down, they'll let me deliver vaginally, adn try to turn Baby B if they're breech during delivery. She went over a lot fo stuff, that they'd let me have the babies right away, and they'll let DH and I bathe them when we're ready, and after we nurse, and they know we don't vax, but we'll get into that later, I"m sure. Good to know about the pit policy, though, b/c she dind't mention that, although I said probably 100 times I DON'T want pit, unless it's a life-threatening hemmorage, and she seemed OK with that. (I did hemmorage last preg, so she's slightly concerned, but didn't seem overly worried.) Oh, and she said the kids can definately be in the room with me when I deliver, which is AWESOME!! She also said there are tubs I can labor in, although I can't have a waterbirth, which kind of stinks, but at least I'll be able to labor in one. We'r e hoping to get up ther for a tour next week.

That bothers me about the no-VBAC policy, although I'm not VBAC this time, if I have a c-section and then we decide to have another, it's definately something I'd want. But, I suppose there's not much I can do about it.

Thanks for responding!

[elanorh]

Yes, I didn't mention, but the delivery rooms are really really nice. Not that I've spent a lot of time in them, since I deliver fast! The recovery rooms are nice, too.

I really have heard only good things about either doc, so I think you'll do well with Dr. Gill's practice too. It's a real blessing to have such good OBs here given what I read about OB delivery in lots of other places. I think it helps that it's pretty much a sole-provider practice, so you know your OB well at delivery time.

Honestly - from what I've read - I think it would be possible to 'break' the no-VBAC policy -- it'd be a fight, but could be done. They don't have a legal leg to stand on, in terms of patient rights. I've a couple friends who've had c/s here and continue to just go with the c/s for next babes, rather than rock the boat. Me, I'd find a lawyer and walk in fully in labor and dare them to do something about it. It's so unfair and dangerous to mothers and babies not to allow VBACs - and, medically, if they can't handle a VBAC, they couldn't handle a lot of other normal birthing situations either [in other words, it's just their liability company banning them].

Hope all goes well for a smooth pregnancy and easy delivery!

[westernskies]

Good luck with your choices!!! Just wanted to say for the record... I had a homebirth transfer to Casper in August and I was terrified because I had heard all the horror stories of that hospital. However, they were amazingly supportive of our choices and VERY respectful. We only had one problem with one nurse- she was the baby nurse who was brought in right before I pushed our 11.5 pound posterior babe out- and she was VERY quickly put into place by MY nurse. I don't think the baby nurse had ever had anyone in there who refused certain things, but once she was told that it was OUR choice and to back off, she did. In fact, even though I had planned to go home AMA immediately I stayed the night and every single person we came into contact with was very sympathetic and apologetic that our birth plan (homebirth) didn't happen. We were very SHOCKED to get such support.... So, Casper isn't horrible. It wasn't our choice, but I am glad it went as good as it did. (I can't believe I just stood up for a hospital! If you knew me, you know this is SO not me, but I did want to encourage someone who may run across this thread about Casper)

Oh and you can VBAC in Douglas. FTR.

[TooShay]

I think it is such GREAT news that there is a doc in the area willing to help vaginally deliver twins! This is becoming a rareity (sadly). We are moving to the Gillette area & are planning a homebirth in July, but I have wondered about the hospital and docs there in case we need to transfer. Any stories or advice about Gillette? I may post a seperate thread on this. Good luck with Dr. Gill and the twins - how exciting!