Thread: OB Appt booked

Got a call from the Dr. today that I've been referred to an OB and my appt is on December 12th.

Ugh, it just makes me so nervous having a Doctor that I've only met twice refer me to an OB and just hope to heck that he is a good OB and we 'mesh' well. Not sure if it helped or hindered that I looked him up on ratemd.ca to see what kind of reviews the OB has. Seems from the reviews that he might be a little induction-happy, which I hope is not true. I was induced with #3 at 11 days overdue, and it was a fine experience, but I hope he doesn't start pushing inducing early at me just because I have big babies.

Anyways, going to be nervous until I meet this OB. Can't believe how fast this is going! In my old city, there were so few OB's (maybe 5 in the whole city?) that you didn't even go to see your OB until you were 32 weeks. You saw your family doc before that. Just seems strange to be passed on to an OB at only 13 weeks!

holy crap 32 weeks? thats crazy hopefully you like him and everything goes well

Originally Posted by angelover02740

holy crap 32 weeks? thats crazy hopefully you like him and everything goes well

Ya, the whole OB thing is different here in Canada. Women don't run to an OB the second they're pregnant. We also don't take our babies to pediatricians unless they have something wrong with them that warrants a referral to a Pedi.


Sandra - Here's hoping the OB works out and you mesh well. If you don't like him/her, can you not try someone else? I'd hope that you'd have the option. As for the induction...they can push and you can say NO! Just keep saying NO until you feel comfortable with saying yes. Obviously there is a point where you'd be overdue and think that it's ok. You have had 3 kids. You know your body better than any OB!!!! *hugs*

Originally Posted by Heatherbella

Ya, the whole OB thing is different here in Canada. Women don't run to an OB the second they're pregnant. We also don't take our babies to pediatricians unless they have something wrong with them that warrants a referral to a Pedi.

so where do you take your babies? they dont get checkup every couple of months?

Originally Posted by angelover02740

so where do you take your babies? they dont get checkup every couple of months?

We take them to our family doctor.

Well, for the first 6 weeks my midwife did the 'well baby' checkups. They come to your home for them.

that doesnt make sense why take them to your family doctor if the pedi specializes in children, my dr here sends us to the childrens hospital if anything unless its life threatening and then we take them to our closest hospital since the children's hospital is 40 mins away from me. Children hospital specializes in children which is where u want to be a hospital is trained to take care of older patients

I think it makes sense...the majority of babies have nothing wrong with them so why go to a specialist?

Keep in mine, I might be wrong about how it goes without a midwife in the picture since I have a midwife. I think normally you take them to whoever delivered them for the first 6 weeks of checkups. So maybe the OB? I don't know exactly.

here midwife's and pedi's are different the midwifes have nothing to do when the baby is born, Here your child sees a Pedi until they 18 years old and then they switch to a family doctor. my son had GERD and an milk protein allergy so it was good that he saw the Pedi because a family doctor might of missed that,

but maybe family docs in Canada have more knowledge in children than the docs here and thats why its not necessary

Wow, pedi till 18? That's crazy.

Ya, our systems are definitely different. Pediatricians are definitely just for cases where you need specialized care. My daughter had reflux as an infant. I took her to our family doctor about it. He offered suggestions to do with positioning and meds. He referred us to a local Child Development Center where we borrowed a positioning wedge for her to sleep on. Had she been more severe or had an allergy, she might have been referred to a specialist. Not sure.

From the reading I've done the US health care system is more 'fear based' than here. We pretty much assume everyone is healthy, until given a reason for them not to be. So a perfectly healthy baby can be 'cared for' by a family doctor...until some reason comes up that they need to be cared by someone else. Also, we don't have super structured visits like you do. We just go to the doctor when we think we need them for something specific. I sometimes wonder if all the visits on a set schedule is a bit of a cash grab for a healthy child? Know what I mean?

To add another difference we also have people called 'Public Health Nurses'. They work in a clinic where they do the immunizations. So you make an appt with them when your child needs immunizations or go to one of their drop in clinics. They do check weights and heights and ask you if you have any concerns there. A lot of the simple care for a normal infant can be done by a nurse or a general doctor...and don't really require a pedi.

im sure all our stuff is money driven, our health care sucks here and we pay an arm and a leg for it and these docs charge an arm and a leg, i have family that lives in canada and im always so jealous of the 1 year maternity leave we get 8 weeks on vaginally and 12 on C-section delivers and its usually unpaid