Hellobee Boards

I would definitely bring it up to your primary OB. I’m sorry that happened to you. That must have been terribly stressful. Glad to hear your babe is ok!

I would definitely bring it up. I can understand that she saw something and wanted you evaluated by a specialist, but I can't imagine a doctor telling you to google a serious pregnancy complication! That's always going to be nightmare fuel!

She made an honest mistake (probably), but her delivery and handling needs a lot of work.

@kiddosc: this x100!

Glad everything worked out ok! If you have her again, I would tell her directly that her handling of the explanation made you uncomfortable and exacerbated your concern. She may be less experienced and not have realized it, but she still shouldn’t be painting worst case scenarios without a confirmed diagnosis and never sending patients to google. We have been diagnosed with IUGR and my MFM doc specifically told me not to google and not to stress about it, that we will monitor everything. Of course I googled anyway but still found his approach very reassuring, he explains the tests we do and what he’s looking for so that I know the probabilities and feel grounded and realistic.

Ugh this story brought back memories. A brand new midwife was our primary midwife as part of the rotating practice with our son. At an ultrasound around 33 weeks for increased fluid, something extremely rare was allegedly found on the umbilical cord and our primary midwife told my wife about the issue: over the phone, NOT to look it up because it was super bad, and nothing could be done other than a referral for another specialist US which would take a week. We were beside ourselves. I honestly don't know how we made it through that week.

We went for the US and the tech and high risk OB were also confused because they didn't see the issue. We were so relieved but I had the same feelings as you. Our son was born literally 4 days later and it ended up being a transfer of care due to PPROM so we didn't deal with the midwife anymore. In the end, we sent them a letter with feedback and filled out their survey very honestly. I was appalled at the way it was handled for something that basically gave our son a 50/50 chance of survival. I think you should absolutely follow up on this and give feedback so this physician learns and realizes that they need to handle things better. I mean, I understand a lot of things turn out to be nothing and they have to screen for everything but we were left on our own to deal with a terrifying problem that came out of nowhere and ended up as nothing. I swear I aged 10 years in that week.

I had a MFM doctor I saw during my 2nd pregnancy that was like this. I had the harmony test that showed everything was great to the extent the test could show. I later met with this doctor who participates in my practice and she did an ultrasound and said she found a marker for Downs and made me kind of panic. I told her about my Harmony results and she kind of pooh-poohed them. I also happened to tell her that I had some birth trauma and she essentially told me to get over it.

I ended up refusing to see her again and I told the practice I would go out of my way to see the other MFM specialists in the hospital (vs the one out of their office). I also had the other MFM look at the area where the one doctor saw the marker and she said there was absolutely nothing there. And that the "marker" only has meaning if it's seen in conjunction with something else. My baby ended up being perfectly healthy.

I'm sorry for the emotional trauma she caused, but I'm glad you were able to be put at ease by the MFM doc. I went through a similar situation with my first, where my primary OB office thought my DD might have IUGR and then I had to wait multiple days to get in with the MFM doc because it was around Thanksgiving - needless to say, ruined a lot of my weekend. It ended up being nothing and the MFM was like "why are you even here?"

That being said, for your situation I wanted to note that I can see her side of it - if she was a fresh attending, she has probably SEEN a lot of the crazy awful complications that comes through her OB (which is a surgical) residency. I don't believe most residencies are through regular OBGYN standalone practices - she was probably at a teaching hospital and had all the emergency cases shipped her way to manage and treat. She was trying to protect you and your baby from something that could be devastating down the road if not identified early. At least, that is what I hope.

I would probably bring it up with either her or another doc at the practice what made you uncomfortable about the scenario. I'm assuming it is a democratic group and they all have ownership in the practice, and can bring it up in a meeting about best practices for bedside manner, referrals to specialists if there's any doubt, etc.

ETA I also wanted to note that OB has by far the highest malpractice rates. If she saw something that made her uneasy and she DIDN'T refer you to a specialist and something actually was wrong... she was covering both you and herself from a liability standpoint.

@smocks: agreed.

I'm so sorry you went through this, I had a similar thing happen where our first LO was suspected to have turners syndrome but she was actually healthy. Despite the trauma it caused, the Dr. had to tell you of her fears though obviously it sounds like her bedside manner could use work. Like @catomd00: said, I am also a little confused why a regular OB would be doing your anatomy scan, at my practice it's a specialist who either does the scan or interprets them. So that is also something to inquire about.