Call back time?

[19spitfire]

I am wondering how long it takes midwives (other than mine) to return phone calls. My midwife takes between 1 to 3 days to return my calls about setting appointments or questions I have. She answered right away for the actual birth of my last child, but I worried the entire pregnancy that she wouldn't because of her relaxed call back time otherwise. I know this is her only profession and that she only has one to two clients a month and her life is not incredibly busy so these aren't issues. Is it normal not to call a client back for at least 24 hours? What do you do or expect?

[DoulaAngie]

For non emergent questions 24-48 hours is totally reasonable for me.

[MidwifeErika]

That seems reasonable for not emergent and non urgent questions and rescheduling of appointments.

ETA: in my own practice I try very hard to get back to people quickly. Mostly because I don't want to forget. Usually this will happen within the first day. However, if they are really non-urgent questions like "can you recommend a book?" or questions about insurance benefits and such then they might get pushed out a bit depending on time of day that I was contacted, if it is a weekend or holiday, if I am at a birth or running around doing postpartum visits, what is going on with my family and kids, etc. I don't mind answering questions, but I also do ask that when possible clients write down their questions to ask at prenatal visits so that I don't spend all day everyday on the phone answering questions that we could have discussed in person just a few days prior :)

Edited by MidwifeErika - 4/18/11 at 10:13pm

[crazykittymomma]

My midwife has one of her student midwife's or assistant answer the phone most of the time and they can typically advise on little things or they pass along the message and depending on the situation she'll call back right away even if she's in the middle of dinner or sleeping. They also text and email pretty quickly which I love.

[Abraisme]

My midwives usually get back to me the same day, but sometimes it takes longer if it's about scheduling.

[HappyMamaBeth]

Hmm... I'm not sure how long it takes my midwife to call me back for non-emergent things.  For urgent issues, I call the midwife on call and they get back to me within an hour.   I called once and they didn't get back to me, so I called back and the operator said they should have by that time--and tracked down the midwife and they found out the pager wasn't working properly!  Yikes!  But I was happy that they followed through and tracked her down and got her on the phone for me ASAP.

[Smokering]

My previous MW often took 1-2 days to call back. My current one usually responds within a few hours.

[Baby_Cakes]

Mine has a different system.  For non emergent things, I'm supposed email her and she will get back in 24-48 hours.  That's for things like appointments, random things.

If it's kind of pressing but not like, in labor emergent, but I need to talk, I call her home phone first and leave a message.  Then call her cell phone and leave a message.  

I've called a handful of times, first calling her home and leaving a message -- and every time I've followed up with her cell, she's answered her phone and addressed the question right away.

I much prefer having a "different level of importance" way to contact her.  Last pg, I never wanted to bother my midwife and wouldn't feel right calling.  I know a lot of my questions/problems went unanswered b/c of my feeling like I shouldn't be a bother.

Anyway -- to answer your original question, 24-48 hrs seems fine for scheduling appts, etc.  But if you're calling b/c you have an issue and want to see her, then no, I think she should call you back the same day preferably within a few hours.

[SynEpona]

My midwives work in a clinic w/ 2 teams of 3 m/w each, plus at least 2 ladies in reception. If I email I get a reply from the office staff by the end of day, if it's an urgent thing ie: bleeding, labour etc. clients are to page, and a M/W on their team calls back w/in 20 min in my experience. I had to email about a homeopathic remedy once, and the office got back to me w/in a few hours to say the M/W was looking into it, and I'd have an answer by the end of the day, then they emailed back 2 hours later to give me the answer. I've never called the office except to set up my first appt, and they have a 2 week intake process involving an application, and a group intake session, so I was told by the office staff right away that it'd be up to 2 weeks before I heard back to set up my first appt, and that was fine with me at that point -- I wasn't their patient yet.

[averlee]

My midwife always either answered my calls and questions directly- I rarely had to leave her a message- or got back to me within just a few hours. Even if she returned my call to tell me "we can talk about that tomorrow" or something, she always got right back to me.

[19spitfire]

Thanks for the feedback. I suppose I'm just used to working with businesses who either answer or call back right away. She works with a group, but not out of an office so I guess that's a different set of protocols. Thanks again. Now I know that her call back time is pretty normal and I can plan for it.