High Risk Doctor

Once I was transferred from my RE to the OB, I started following a normal pregnancy appointment routine with the exception that I would also have to see an MFM for the duration of my pregnancy. An MFM is a maternal fetal medicine physician - or someone used to dealing with higher risk pregnancies. Because I was pregnant with multiples and because I was quickly approaching what the obstetretics deem "advanced maternal age," it was determined an MFM should help follow the pregnancy.

In my pregnancy with Zachary, I had gone to an MFM for a couple of visits because I wanted to get the NT scan. The physician that I saw is one of the only high risk pregnancy physicians in our area (and I live in a pretty large metropolitan area!) and so many of my co-workers had also gone to him for high risk pregnancies. He was deemed Dr. Amnio by these co-workers because of his fondness for putting significant pressure on patients to have an amniocentesis. All of the co-workers that had gone to him for the duration of his pregnancy had been asked multiple times to have an amniocentesis. I figured that I was walking in fully aware of this and that he wouldn't pressure me for anything.

We went through the NT scan with little issues, both babies were measuring perfectly and we were scheduled to come back in a month.

The time for the next appointment came and we had another ultrasound. The thing about high risk pregnancies is you get a TON of ultrasounds. I get to see the babies at least once a month. It's kind of cool. Again, the babies were measuring completely normal and on track, but this time, Dr. Amnio saw a problem. I had been expecting this conversation but still felt instant anger at him.

"Baby B has what appear to be enlarged brain ventricles." What did that mean? Normal ventrical range fell under 10mm. Baby B had ventricles currently measuring 9.5mm. Sooooo...he's still at the high end of normal? Yes but I think we should get this very expensive and not covered by insurance blood test. And if that comes back with an issue, we'll want to look at fetal MRI or amniocentesis. There it was.

After some arguments with the doctor (in the middle of his waiting room no less), it was determined that I would do the quad screen initially because that was covered by insurance. While it had a higher false positive rate than the other blood test, at least we could start with the least expensive option and go forward if we needed it.

I gave the blood and we sat on pins and needles for a week while we waited for the results. When the results came in (negative for all three major trisomies and negative for neural tube defects), I decided I would not step foot in this physician's office again. I knew there was another MFM that I could be referred to and at my next OB appointment, I asked to be referred. Within a week I had my appointment at the new physician scheduled and was moving on.