possibly dropping fp for pregnancy, but seeing her for normal care?

[Honey693]

I saw a family practitioner for my last pregnancy and she currently sees me, DD and DH. I went to her to get blood work for this pregnancy done, did my OB history and scheduled my first appointment. However, it's not a sure thing I'm using her for my prenatal care. We're interviewing a home birth midwife next week and I'm really hoping I can get DH on board and use her. If I do decide to use the midwife how do I drop my fp? DD will still see her for well baby checkups, I'll see her when I'm sick and I'd like her to see the new baby too. So I'm really unsure of how to drop her for prenatal care and still use her normally. I know if I say hey I'm using a home birth midwife she would be against it and since I want to continue to see her I'd rather not bring that up. Has anyone done this with successful results?

[MaerynPearl]

well mines due to moving out of state so it was easier... but I know my own FP is ecstatic that I want to do a home birth anyway (as my FP puts it... her own doctor was surprised that SHE was okay with doing a hospital birth. I love my FP because she is so much like me and would do my home birth if I were still here)

You could just tell them you want to see someone who specializes in only pregnancies/births but do not want to give them up as an FP. Will continue to be their patient and bring your new child to them after they are born. You should not have to clarify more than that and if they ask you to just tell them that is really all you feel comfortable sharing.

[curvyred]

Just talk to her! If you're lucky, she may be willing to be your backup if you have any medical issues and/or go into labor outside of the range for doing a homebirth. She should understand that homebirth is outside of her scope, so it's not like you're just "dumping" her for somebody different.

I just went through this with my doc. I LOVE my family doc. She's WONDERFUL. I had my first two pre-natal visits with her before I learned more about the local birth center. We talked about the birth center at my last prenatal visit with her as well as her philosophies about the hospital birth. (She's actually pretty supportive of natural birth but only midwives deliver at the birth center.) She volunteered the information that she has had a lot of patients who went with midwives and she functioned as their backups.

I sent her a letter letting her know I was transferring and asked a couple questions about when to bring in new babe for his well visits (versus using the midwives for post-partum care.) She made sure to call me back in person and talked for 20 minutes about how to use her as backup if needed (for her that means she's on-call as if I was her patient the whole way through the pregnancy.)

I feel like I have the best of both worlds. I have great midwives and a birth center, but if anything happens outside of the range where I can deliver at the birth center, or if I have to transfer, I have a doc who is natural-birth friendly.

You may find yourself in the same win-win situation!

[sharr610]

Just let her know that you'll be exploring more specialized care for this pregnancy and look forward to continuing the great relationship with her as your primary family provider. Thats not lying and perfectly reasonable. Even let her suggest an OB or two if she wants.