The birthing center requires that I get my pediatrician to fill out a form prior to birth that says that they have rights at the hospital, that they will come do the newborn exam, etc. So I called the ped yesterday and they said I need to come in for a prenatal appt.
It was a little weird because we already see this ped with our two boys, so most of the "welcome to our practice!" stuff was unnecessary. But, we moved to this ped when Ian was 2 and Connor was 9 months, so the ped and I discussed a lot of newborn stuff. Here's a run down:
He has no issue with me skipping HepB. Although he did ask if my husband and myself have been vaccinated, which unfortunately we have because of our jobs (I was active duty military, he is an EMT).
He has no issue with me choosing colustrum over eye ointment, but did say that there have been some isolated instances where baby still got an infection. Of course, baby can't get infection if I'm sure I'm negative, and since I've only ever had one partner (and he's only ever had one partner) I know beyond a doubt that I'm negative.
He has no issue with me choosing not to circ, and agrees that special cleaning isn't necessary, and reviewed with me not to retract (which of course I know, having two intact boys already!)
We discussed how he (or his partners) would handle if baby is born at home or in the car, I don't want them to try to put baby on antibiotics because of being born in a "non sterile" environment
(this happened to a coworker who delivered in her car, they whisked baby away to NICU and started him on antibiotics) He said he wouldn't, but would probably check blood counts at arrival to the hospital and again before discharge to make sure nothing funky is going on, which is fine with me, I think it's being overprotective (especially if baby is born at home where there are LESS germs) but I have no issue with blood tests.
I plan on accepting the newborn screen (metabolic, PKU, and others) as well as the hearing screen, so no issue there.
The one thing we did talk about was VitK. I talked to him about the biology behind why we don't make our own VitK until Day 8 or so, and also discussed with him numbers of significant bleeds ocurring in populations like the Amish. I am still fully on the fence with this one. It seems like if the birth is non-eventful, the chances of a bleed are exceedingly low, but the consequences of such a bleed are disastrous, so I still need to consider this. I also need to consider that because hubby and I have ABO incompatability and Rh incompatability, baby's liver may be more taxed than usual, and could really use the help of the VitK shot. Or, on the flip side, because liver is already taxed, maybe an overload of a vitamin isn't a good thing. Oh heck, I don't know!
We also talked about what medical signs we might look for that this baby could be effected by my son's syndrome. I know how Connor presented (severe breathing issues, major feeding issues, palate malformation, and external ear malformation were the first things we noticed), but there is wide variability in presentation of the symptoms of his syndrome, from extremely severe to so minor that the diagnosis is years down the road (if at all, sometimes you don't find out about the syndrome until you have a child who is effected and the parents get tested and find out they've had the syndrome all along).
Other than that, it was just paperwork and that was it!
It was a little weird because we already see this ped with our two boys, so most of the "welcome to our practice!" stuff was unnecessary. But, we moved to this ped when Ian was 2 and Connor was 9 months, so the ped and I discussed a lot of newborn stuff. Here's a run down:
He has no issue with me skipping HepB. Although he did ask if my husband and myself have been vaccinated, which unfortunately we have because of our jobs (I was active duty military, he is an EMT).
He has no issue with me choosing colustrum over eye ointment, but did say that there have been some isolated instances where baby still got an infection. Of course, baby can't get infection if I'm sure I'm negative, and since I've only ever had one partner (and he's only ever had one partner) I know beyond a doubt that I'm negative.
He has no issue with me choosing not to circ, and agrees that special cleaning isn't necessary, and reviewed with me not to retract (which of course I know, having two intact boys already!)
We discussed how he (or his partners) would handle if baby is born at home or in the car, I don't want them to try to put baby on antibiotics because of being born in a "non sterile" environment
(this happened to a coworker who delivered in her car, they whisked baby away to NICU and started him on antibiotics) He said he wouldn't, but would probably check blood counts at arrival to the hospital and again before discharge to make sure nothing funky is going on, which is fine with me, I think it's being overprotective (especially if baby is born at home where there are LESS germs) but I have no issue with blood tests.I plan on accepting the newborn screen (metabolic, PKU, and others) as well as the hearing screen, so no issue there.
The one thing we did talk about was VitK. I talked to him about the biology behind why we don't make our own VitK until Day 8 or so, and also discussed with him numbers of significant bleeds ocurring in populations like the Amish. I am still fully on the fence with this one. It seems like if the birth is non-eventful, the chances of a bleed are exceedingly low, but the consequences of such a bleed are disastrous, so I still need to consider this. I also need to consider that because hubby and I have ABO incompatability and Rh incompatability, baby's liver may be more taxed than usual, and could really use the help of the VitK shot. Or, on the flip side, because liver is already taxed, maybe an overload of a vitamin isn't a good thing. Oh heck, I don't know!
We also talked about what medical signs we might look for that this baby could be effected by my son's syndrome. I know how Connor presented (severe breathing issues, major feeding issues, palate malformation, and external ear malformation were the first things we noticed), but there is wide variability in presentation of the symptoms of his syndrome, from extremely severe to so minor that the diagnosis is years down the road (if at all, sometimes you don't find out about the syndrome until you have a child who is effected and the parents get tested and find out they've had the syndrome all along).
Other than that, it was just paperwork and that was it!
