Oh wow. This is a big deal question. Delivering babies was some of the most amazing, interesting, joyous, spontaneous, unique 25 years of my life. I loved doing it and still do. I was not one of those that ever rushed a patient because I had theater tickets. I realized that ob was not really a scheduled event. I can’t think of nearly anything else with that much infinite variety in terms of timing, experience and literally everything else. I knew before going in what the schedule would be like….tons of hours…missing outside stuff that was previously scheduled….sleepless nights….wrestling out of bed at 3 am to make a 30 second decision. You get what I’m saying. Some may call it gruelling. I called it fantastic. I knew what I was getting into and I wanted to be there.
I always made sure to make every experience special. Sometimes we sang. Sometimes we played music. Sometimes we laughed babies out. Sometimes I was in fact pulling women off the proverbial ceiling to regain back control and help them have an experience that they could look back on with joy and not regret.
I tried hard to remind patients not to stick to the strict birth plans because they were just a set up for disappointment. This is not me saying I didn’t think patient should have control over their own situations. Absolutely not. I am just saying that the labor and delivery experience is nothing if not a wild ride and if you go into it expecting something else, you will just make it tougher on yourself. There is nothing worse than setting yourself up for disappointment that a plan did not go a certain way and then that can potentially take away from your baby joy. Nope. I don’t recommend it.
I also was a big fan of the more natural experience. My goal was to be as hands off as was safe and let mom and baby guide the way. I was not the tons of ivs and epidurals and drugs for every patient. I had plenty of patients who had none of that and it was ok. Obviously if safety situations changed things could change as needed.
So, now that I have said all that, why would I stop doing it? It makes no sense right? It doesn’t sound like it does. Unfortunately it does makes sense. After my first cancer I lost of lot of that key stamina that’s required to really do a great job at OB. I wasn’t entirely confident that I still could jump up and do my job effectively at 3 am anymore. I just didn’t have the 100% anymore to do it. So, I realized that about myself and decided that if I felt like it was a potential risk to mom or baby, it was not worth still doing it. In OB, life and death things come up in seconds and you have to be ready. I wasn’t sure I could be ready all the time anymore. So, I made the very tough decision to give it up. I do feel sad about it still and I continue to take care of new obs up to 12 weeks in the office to get them started so there is till some interaction there. Bottom line is that if I am ever uncertain that I can do a job to the 110th percent, I won’t do it. Hope that answers everybody’s question.
Dr. Katz
