Meet and Greet (VBAC friendly) OB in the Valley

[mtn.mama]

Hey all,

Mat-Su Midwifery is hosting a meet and greet with Dr. Elrod of Sleeping Lady Women's Health Care on Tuesday February 24thm 7-9pm at the Alaska Club. Call 373-3420 for more information.

Dr Elrod is the famed new OB at Valley Hospital who supports VBACs, so I hear. His number is 746-7747. Supposedly, his goal is to make VBACs accessible for Alaskans...

I'll let you know what else I find out.

Lisa

[roadfamily6now]

sounds great!

[elvispupy]

I'll have to try to make that one since I may need an OBGYN for other reasons (would rather give my $$ to someone VBAC-supportive than not. He posts on OBGYN.net's forums and seemed to be pretty decent (as far as OBs go), at least when I was reading them somewhat regularly a couple years back.

[roadfamily6now]

Originally Posted by mtn.mama

Hey all,

Mat-Su Midwifery is hosting a meet and greet with Dr. Elrod of Sleeping Lady Women's Health Care on Tuesday February 24thm 7-9pm at the Alaska Club. Call 373-3420 for more information.

Dr Elrod is the famed new OB at Valley Hospital who supports VBACs, so I hear. His number is 746-7747. Supposedly, his goal is to make VBACs accessible for Alaskans...

I'll let you know what else I find out.

Lisa

I am assuming this is in Wasilla Alaska CLub???

[treetop]

Oh wow! I am taking this as a sign! My husband and I are trying to figure out if we want to have our VBAC in Ketchikan, Anchorage, or the Valley. Unfortunately, I am in Ketchikan. SO, is anybody going to the meet and great? I would love it if somebody could PM me with some info that they learn or I could give them a call. Has anybody had a VBAC with him? Thanks!

[mtn.mama]

I'm assuming its at one of the AK Clubs in the Valley, I don't know which. Call the birth center at that number to find out for sure.

I'm not going to the meet and greet, because the timing is off for me. But I did schedule a 1x1 appointment with him for the 1st week of March.

I'll come back then and share my impressions with you. I know some folks will be attending- hopefully they'll have feedback for us.

[roadfamily6now]

I would love to go! Can I carpool anyone out there? I have a suburban and can hold 7 more people!! Come on ladies!! We could make a "date" of it.

[roadfamily6now]

Originally Posted by roadfamily6now

I would love to go! Can I carpool anyone out there? I have a suburban and can hold 7 more people!! Come on ladies!! We could make a "date" of it.

Bumpity bump bump!

[mtn.mama]

I would totally be up for this if I lived close to town...

[nik_907]

I would so join if I were any closer!!! (Kenai currently) So jealous you guys have all the good meet and greet's, get togethers over there.

Would love to hear the details of what all goes down.

[elvispupy]

So I attended. I had to leave as soon as it was over, so I'm sorry I didnt get to chat if anyone else was there.

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this guy. The midwives from MatSu Midwifery and he presented that they are working together so they can offer the best care possible for the women they serve. He worked in Great Brittan for a while where the system is set up so midwives do the care for most women and the OBs are there for major complications and c-sections.

They have set up something similar here. If a woman is in the care of the midwives and needs to transfer in labor, she is transferred to him. He is having "meet & greet" appointments with the midwife clients in their last trimester. It's mainly so they can get to know him ahead of time and be assured that if a transfer is necessary, they will have someone on the hospital side who is going to be caring and respectful (and not punish them for attempting a home/BC birth in the first place).

He is also working on the policy at the MatSu hospital for waterbirth. He says they have a tub that is rarely used for even a laboring mom, never for birth. They have to have a policy in place first and no other practicioner has had any interest in it anyway. In the meantime, he said he has a patient who wants a waterbirth and he's planning on attending her birth at the birth center .

I asked about his thoughts on VBAC. His comments on the risks were factual, not fearmongering and mentioned the sucess rates were pretty good. He emphasised that he liked to have a relationship with his VBAC patients, not just have someone show up at the hospital that he's never met. His comfort level seemed to be at no more than 2 prior cesareans (or maybe that was more hospital policy?). He said he had to be at the hospital the entire time a laboring VBAC mom was there, but his office is also at the hospital. The one thing he said that had me a little was that the hospital doesn't have 24/7 anesthesia on site so if you wanted them there hanging around on site, you'd get an epidural. I wasn't sure if that meant he'd try to push an epidural on a VBAC mom or what.

So, overall It sounds like good news for women of the valley. The cynical side of me suspects he's a good actor, it's some huge bait & switch where the midwives start transferring women for more minor things, but really, I think you have some practitioners that see the advantages for both patients and business of working together instead of separate and adversarial.

[treetop]

Originally Posted by elvispupy

He said he had to be at the hospital the entire time a laboring VBAC mom was there, but his office is also at the hospital. The one thing he said that had me a little was that the hospital doesn't have 24/7 anesthesia on site so if you wanted them there hanging around on site, you'd get an epidural. I wasn't sure if that meant he'd try to push an epidural on a VBAC mom or what.

I wonder what would happen if your labor was taking a long time? Would he start pushing for an c/s? Would sick around for 24+ hours while missing all his other clients?
I also do not like the idea of having an epidural. I wonder if they could get everything in place but not having any of the drugs. Just in case there was an emergency, I would be ready to go? Yuck! That also means no water birth.
Thank you so much for sharing! Sounds like he is better then most doctors and I can understand being slightly suspicious! I am shocked that it is so hard to find a trusting doc. to preform a VBAC. Must be why so many people say to have a HBAC!
Well, we are moving into a new place this week but next Monday I will be calling different practitioners. I will let everybody know if I found out anything more about Dr. Elrod. Wow, what a journey this is going to be!

[elvispupy]

I don't know. He did emphasize he was all about women's choices. He even supports elective c/s (as touchy as that is for me, I am too. If a woman is fully informed of the risks and wants to have one anyway, what business is if of anyone's to tell her no. I just don't like that a lot of doctors would skew the risk/benefits to encourage her that way). I don't know if he'd actually require an epidural, maybe just encourage it, or maybe he was mentioning it if a mom was concerned about it. I'm kicking myself for not asking him to clarify that.

As for him having to be there the whole time. That would encourage me to stay out of the hospital during labor as long as possible before going in, but IIRC, the midwives mentioned he let one of their clients labor for a long, long time after a transfer.

[L&K'smommie]

I'll have to ask my MW about him. I see a HB MW in the Valley, but not one of the ladies at Mat-Su Midwifery. If I did have to transfer during or after this birth then I would hope that he is on call. I have delivered at the new hospital in the Valley and asked my previous CNM about the birth tub and they definitely sounded non chalant about it...they just said they don't have the legality to do it. I'm surprised no one has pushed for it sooner. It's quite a nice sized birth tub but it is in a separate room from their labor and delivery rooms.
Thanks for the update on how the meeting went.

[mtn.mama]

Here's the update on my 1x1 meeting with Dr. Elrod...