OB/GYN or midwife recommendations in Northern Minnesota (Duluth, Bemidji: home, live in)

[Annemary]

We live in Bemidji, but I would be willing to travel for the right place to go, e.g. Fosston or Grand Rapids. I'd prefer a female doctor and a hospital that offers water birth. Does anyone have recommendations and/or experience? Any help appreciated.

[Annemary]

Wow, you northerners are not very frequent forum users...

[fromupthere]

Well I personally have no idea but I do like Grand Rapids and the two providers listed on the hospital website are female. It is Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital.

I have no idea if any of the facilities in the Northern Minnesota area you mentioned offer water births.

I wish you luck and wish I had more info for you. Hopefully someone from Northern Minnesota who has the answers you need will visit the site soon.

[fromupthere]

Waterbirth.html

[Annemary]

Thanks for your replies (at least, someone finally did reply ). I've seen the websites that are out there. Unfortunately a hospital website doesn't say, if a doctor is good or bad. I also know, that the websites for waterbirth don't list all places that offer that kind of birth and the list of midwives is incomplete as well . This is why insider tips are priceless. Anyhow, I guess I'll have to just try and hope to be lucky.

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Annemary

Thanks for your replies (at least, someone finally did reply ). I've seen the websites that are out there. Unfortunately a hospital website doesn't say, if a doctor is good or bad. I also know, that the websites for waterbirth don't list all places that offer that kind of birth and the list of midwives is incomplete as well . This is why insider tips are priceless. Anyhow, I guess I'll have to just try and hope to be lucky.

There are not a lot of women from northern MN here, sorry. Do you belong to a church or other organization where you can ask people who they have used? I know what you mean about personal recommendations!

[crazyme4878]

I don't know about your area--I gave birth in Ely. However, I would urge you to think about staying closer to home. I had an acquaintance that moved to Ely from the Twin Cities in the beginning of her pregancy. She asked for references from her Cities doctor, but she only knew of a couple in Duluth (two hours away). She didn't want to "chance" the small town doctors, so she went with the doctor in Duluth. She had to drive 2 hours one way for all her appointments and she ended up going into labor in the middle of the night. She had to go through labor in a car for two hours while her husband tried his hardest to avoid deer the whole way. The kicker: she wasn't even able to receive drugs because the anthesiasologist was too busy in the ER that night!

Just something to think about...

[Annemary]

@ golfgal. I am a member of a church. All women I've asked so far have a guy doctor though or had a home birth.

@ crazyme. I know distances are less than ideal, but so are bad doctors or bad hospitals. I don't know, which evil would be worse .

[crazyme4878]

Just be prepared for a less-than-ideal birth, just in case there is an emergency and you have to use the local hospital instead! I know my first one was, as well as several of my friends'. It is just so hard...it is your first pregnancy and you read all about the different options and plan out how you want to cope, how you want your baby's first hours to be like, and then you end up having no control over it! I don't know, maybe God likes to through us a wrench? I didn't have any ideals for my second birth, and presto! Everything happened perfectly.

By the way: Congratulations! I hope everything goes well (and that you give birth in the middle of the day!)

[uptown_urbanist]

I agree; while I wish you the best trying to find what you want within reasonable commuting distance (sorry, no recommendations) I'd also recommend that you at least look into the hospitals nearest to you for backup purposes. I had an emergency c-section quite a bit early with a doctor I'd never met and at a hospital I'd never even visited. It all turned out fine in the end, but it was, needless to say, not what I had expected. At the very least know how to get to get to the local ER in case you need to head there at short notice. With luck it will never be an issue, but knowing where to go and how to get there (which probably you know already, since Bemidjii isn't huge) will be one less thing to stress about if you do have any surprise complications that need immediate attention.