Weighting Our VBAC Options

The midwives at Woodwinds gave me a couple different options, all of which pretty much included delivery at St. John's with OB's, not midwives. I could go all the way out to Hudson to a place called Hudson Physicians to see Dr. Hartung, and possibly deliver at Woodwinds. Or I could go to one of the Health East clinics and deliver at St. John's, or I could go to Comprehensive Healthcare for Women in Woodbury (the closest option), and deliver at St. John's. So I tried to get the best references possible... I talked to my friends.

My friend, Chris, had delivered her daughter at St. John's, so I asked about her experiences there. She had nothing but good things to say about them. The nurses were great, and she really liked the on-call doctor (better than the one she had been seeing at one of the Health East clinics for her prenatal care). She said it was great to be able to labor, deliver, and recover all in one room. They had their daughter room in with them, and there were people able to help with lactation. St. John's was sounding better than I had thought. The only downside was that they didn't do waterbirths, but if you're VBAC'ing (in a hospital), you won't be able to do a waterbirth. They do, however, have labor tubs (much smaller, but still just as relaxing) in each room.

So now it was down to where to go for prenatal care. Chris said that going with a Health East clinic meant that you could have whoever was on-call deliver your baby (which turned out fine for her!). But when I talked with Comprehensive Healthcare for Women, one of their three doctors would be delivering your baby (much smaller pool to choose from with them!). I scheduled a consult with Dr. Sam Arnold (their only male doctor), and found out from my sister-in-law that he delivered three of their seven (going on eight) children. She said she really liked him, but I guess he and her husband (who's a big talker) did too much talking while she was in labor for her liking with the last one that he delivered!

We shall see how the consult goes, but I'm starting to get excited about this as an option! I'm just worried that they'll tell us we didn't wait long enough between babies to have a VBAC. But, I'm not someone who will take "no" as an answer on that one!