I LOVE my obstetrician and his 'funny' little theories...

[Jellyfish]

He sounds like a good guy! I absolutely adore my obstetrician, also! He didn't have many theories but was so kind and supportive. I had a drug-free labour with no tears, cuts or stitches and he said how proud he was of me -- it meant the world to hear that.

[BellyBelly]

Epacris - I think EVERYONE is a natural no matter what the circumstance, birth is a natural, biological thing, and the more educated and informed you are, the more confident and empowered you will feel. Like anything in life, I think confidence and esteem has to come from within - you can't rely on others to give it to you (hence SELF esteem ). I think with an Ob there can be an auto distinction of a medical 'expert' vs 'passive consumer' and it's not a healthy thing... you can still have a medical 'expert' and be incredibly empowered, natural and confident.

Like they say on the Business of Being Born, consumers can see the Ob as an expert giving them advice or telling them what to do and the Ob sees it as giving an option.

[LaDeeDa]

Fionas can you PM me the name of your OB ....just for next time :wink:

[Cassius2]

thanks for sharing that Fionas!

um, i guess there were no outright words of wisdom from my OB as such. he DID tell me that at my last appt at 38 weeks that the next time he would see me would be in a couple of days at the hospital having the baby...DD was born 38 +2 weeks!

i loved the way that when i asked about induction timings he refused to even talk about it until i was at least 10 days over. gotta love the intervention reluctance!

pity we live in a different city now.

[bon]

Fiona - its great to hear that you had such a positive experience

[Smoz]

oh FIona your OB sounds so much like mine!

It's such a special and wonderful relatoinship when you find the right one!

I went to an all girls school Loreto Coorparoo and after DS1 whislt at my 6wk check up and during my papsm we got talking about his daughters and how he was enrolling them in highschool and was looking at Loreto and i said "oh im a loreto girl!" and his comment was well thats my decision made loreto builds there girls strong looking at you.

low and behold 3years later and im back with DS2 and after the birth he says....see thats the loreto girl in you (i hadn't mentioned it he remembered) so i asked and he said that yes he had sent all three daughters to loreto! heehee

There is nothing better than a good OB and i went to 5different places with DS1 as i wanted so much to be comfortable with them...only got to my current ob when i was 30weeks along

[Trillian]

Mmmmm, too many old wives tales there for me sorry. My skin isn't that elastic at all - I get horrible stretchies, yet I have had one accidental pg, and 3 conceived first try. I have an average size shoe yet pushed out one large (going by his standards a baby under 9lb s large), 2 super size ones and one super-super size one. I know of a lot of islander women who have absolute whopper size babies. I reckon you could *work* on the theory of a shorter birth because second labours are often shorter anyway.

At the end of the day though, what is important is that you love him and you trust him.

[Jellyfish]

Ohhh. That is one thing I forgot -- I saw my obstetrician at 37+3 and my next appointment was in a weeks time. He said "Oh, I'm sure I'll be seeing you sooner than that" and I had the baby 4 days later!

[Epacris]

I LOVED my ob too, in fact he said exactly what Epacris said "You're a Natural!" (I see you're in Sydney, maybe we have the same obs )

Kelly, it's funny you should say that. I kinda got the feeling that actually he did say that to everyone

yep, SweatPea and I have the same lovely ob. Too funny.

At the end of the day though, what is important is that you love him and you trust him.

Yes, yes, yes