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12-30-2013, 02:17 PM
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213 posts, read 824,684 times
Reputation: 196
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Apologies for my ignorance but it is our first baby!
We live in Secaucus and were visiting Meadowlands Hospital for the last 6 months. Last week, we were informed that our insurance, United Healthcare has not renewed its contract with Meadowlands, hence, it will go out of network from January 1st, 2014.
My wife is currently 36 weeks pregnant and the expected date of delivery is Jan 18th, 2014. We are scrambling to find another hospital but haven't been able to secure an appointment with a doctor yet.
Nearest hospitals that accept United Healthcare are Hackensack and Palisades. While I understand that a OBGYN may not accept her this late in pregnancy, I was wondering, once the labor pain starts, if we can go to any hospital covered by our insurance, without prior visits or appointments?
Any guidance here would be greatly appreciated!
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12-30-2013, 02:21 PM
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Location: NJ
31,771 posts, read 38,410,750 times
Reputation: 24549
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that sucks. my wife is pregnant and is currently seeing an OB on a regular basis. id imagine if an issue like that arose, id probably consult with him about it first.
also, be aware that a large % of births are done by c section. when we had our first daughter, I didn't realize that and was caught a little off guard when they told us that's whats happening. my wife has anxiety issues when it comes to surgery, so it would have been nice to have thought about that in advance.
also, congratulations!! life is gonna suck for a little while but then it gets awesome.
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12-30-2013, 02:31 PM
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213 posts, read 824,684 times
Reputation: 196
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@CaptainNJ: Thank you! And congratulations to you as well!
I have been talking with her OB, the hospital and the insurance company.
OB says the hospital and insurance should be able to work it out to give us a month's grace period. Apparently they have done this in the past.
Insurance and hospital claim they have been trying to reach each other but I am not seeing any results here.
I have heard about the preference for C-section deliveries in US but I assumed they would ask us before doing it. Isn't that the case? It has been a complication-free pregnancy this far. *knocks on wood*
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12-30-2013, 02:46 PM
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Location: NJ
31,771 posts, read 38,410,750 times
Reputation: 24549
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Quote:
Originally Posted by abpat2203
I have heard about the preference for C-section deliveries in US but I assumed they would ask us before doing it. Isn't that the case? It has been a complication-free pregnancy this far. *knocks on wood*
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well, they aren't just going to slice her open without saying anything but its not going to feel like you have a lot of choice when the time comes. |
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12-30-2013, 02:52 PM
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213 posts, read 824,684 times
Reputation: 196
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Do they try to scare you into a c-section? Me and my brother were both delivered via c-section and I remember my mom being bed-ridden for many weeks post having my younger brother. I admit it was almost two decades ago and it has improved since then but the idea of c-section still scares me.
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12-30-2013, 02:56 PM
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Location: NJ
31,771 posts, read 38,410,750 times
Reputation: 24549
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Quote:
Originally Posted by abpat2203
Do they try to scare you into a c-section? Me and my brother were both delivered via c-section and I remember my mom being bed-ridden for many weeks post having my younger brother. I admit it was almost two decades ago and it has improved since then but the idea of c-section still scares me.
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they basically tell you that its been x amount of time and your wife isn't dilated as much as she needs to so they want to do a c section. I don't remember the exact words but they are trying to scare you and "intimidate" you into trusting their judgment. which you really don't have a ton of choice since you aren't the expert. my wife had a lot of infection issues with the incision. the recovery wasn't so wonderful. i think one problem was the "dissolving" stitches that didn't really dissolve. |
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12-30-2013, 02:59 PM
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213 posts, read 824,684 times
Reputation: 196
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I remember those stitches and the infection that comes with it. Now this is one more thing to worry about!  |
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12-30-2013, 03:49 PM
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3,984 posts, read 6,786,997 times
Reputation: 2882
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A blessing in disguise because I'd stay FAR away from Meadowlands Hospital. It's a dump and now it's a for-profit dump.
We had all our kids at Englewood Hospital and the Mrs. loved it there. She used Comprehensive Womens Care in Englewood for OB/GYN. Good luck & forget about Lamaze...waste of time.
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12-30-2013, 03:55 PM
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Location: NJ
31,771 posts, read 38,410,750 times
Reputation: 24549
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my wife is doing something called (I think) hypnobirthing. I have an aunt that's a nurse practioner that became a midwife (I don't really know what that is) and she started doing tons of deliveries for illegal aliens. she is the one that recommended the hypnobirthing thing.
we used a different doctor for the first one and we went to Monmouth for the birth. this time we are going to do it in jersey shore medical center. its where we take my daughter when she gets sick.
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12-30-2013, 04:32 PM
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Location: NJ
328 posts, read 1,011,416 times
Reputation: 171
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Yes, if you really need to, you can show up at any hospital and the on call doctor will attend your wife's delivery. Under EMTALA, a woman in active labor cannot be turned away and she must receive proper medical care.
HypnoBirthing is a wonderful method, especially if she may wind up with a doctor and hospital she is not familiar with. CaptainNJ is correct - NJ has one of the highest cesarean rates in the country. They technically need consent to do a cesarean but they come up with all sorts of coercive techniques (and scare tactics) - your labor is taking too long so there *must* be a problem, your pelvis appears to be too small, the baby appears to be too big, the heartrate is "non-reassuring." Most cesareans are done for subjective reasons rather than indisputable ones. Hopefully they taught you to advocate for your wife during the HypnoBirthing course. Just remember a few things - if she is not 4cm, she is not in active labor. If her contractions are close, have her walk for a little bit to see if she dilates more. If not, return home. Active labor is not until 4cm and progressing. Being admitted before that means she will likely get pitocin, which will be increased every 20-40 minutes or so. Increasing pitocin too quickly can lead to the "pit to distress" phenomenon which means contractions get too strong too fast and cause issues with baby's heartrate which then leads to the "emergency cesarean."
There is no reason why a healthy low risk mom needs to stay in bed on a monitor. Make sure she is up and walking and using laboring tools like the shower and birthing ball as much as she wants.
If the hospital suggests any intervention remember BRAND (benefits, risks, alternative, nothing, do we have time) - What are the benefits? What are the risks? What are the alternatives (e.g.can we just have more time before using pitocin)? What if we do nothing? Doe we have time to think about it.
A midwife (in a hospital) is a nurse with advanced training who is qualified to attend vaginal births. She will call an OB in for complications like vacuum deliveries or cesareans. Midwives are experts in normal birth and their outcomes are as good as OBs.
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