Help finding a doctor?

Hi everyone! It's been awhile but we are all moved and FINALLY finishing up the remodeling. We found out in the process of all this moving and remodeling that we are pregnant! It's exciting but scary too! Anyway we are planning to still have the baby in Logan. I would love to go to a birthing center but that just isn't possible since the closest one to us is 2 hours away and Dh won't have it lol. I love the doctor I had for Christian, she was really great about letting me have the natural birth that I wanted and not pressuring me to be induced when I was overdue but the company my husband works for has crappy crappy insurance so we're not even going to get it, plus there may be a job change in the near future. My doctor was at the women's center and if I remember right they charge an arm and a leg for people that don't have insurance and you have to pay all in advance. I don't want to go on medicaid if I can help it. Anyone know of a doctor that uses a sliding scale for people without insurance or have any other ideas? I'm almost 12 weeks and I still haven't been the any doctor yet I just don't know where to go or what to do!

Where do you live right now? Would your hubby be okay with a home birth? Cache County has a few really great midwives. There is a midwife named Launa Jansen who is trying to start a birth center in Logan very soon! Her website is : http://www.sunrisemidwiferyservices.com/ Just curious why you don't want to go on Medicaid--it's free! I had Anne Blackett at the Women's Center--I liked her but hated waiting hours in the waiting room and trying to get in to see her! She ended up being sick when I gave birth, and I got a dr. I didn't like much at all!

I don't know if my dr uses a sliding scale. but I absolutely love him. Fist visit I told him I wanted to go natural and he gave me flyers and business cards for doula's and everything. He's been absolutely wonderful about everything!!!
Dr Thomas Clark at the Cache valley Family practice. They're in the same building as Instacare. Instead of turning left to instacare, you turn right past the pharmacy.
And really medicaid is not bad. I've had all of my kids on it. It's free, and as long as you're not abusing the system, it's a wonderful program. You even get your prenatal vitamins at no cost.

I'm going to say home birth as well. I had the most wonderful experience ever with my youngest. (background: DD#1 we had insurance, induced in hospital for pre E, miserable... DD#2 we had crappy insurance that didn't cover Epi so had natural birth in hospital, better... DD#3 we had no insurance and chose at home, called midwife too late cause I thought it would take awhile and husband caught baby 3 minutes before the midwife got there). Maybe I'll share my home birth pictures some day.

My midwife is Chris Miller from Ogden (I say IS because I will use her again!!!). She comes up and does Logan apts every Tuesday (have to check to make sure its still the same day) at an office in North Logan. As long as you pay the full $2000 before like week 36 than the payments (what and when) are completely up to you! After week 36 I think it goes up to $2500. Still, much cheaper way to have a baby! And so magical.

I was nervous, too, when I found out I was pg with no insurance. I waited till week 14 before I called Chris to set up an appointment. She has like 12 kids and is really nice. Very straight forward about everything. The only other expense we had was we wanted to have an ultrasound, so we went to a specialist to have one done at about 22 weeks. That cost about $200 if I remember correctly because we paid that day.

Anyway, just something to think about if you haven't yet. GL!! And keep us updated

Thanks everyone for all the advice!

Amy- How soon is very soon? Like before October? Lol. A birthing center really would be ideal for us. I won't get my hopes up though. Her website is great I might try emailing her Dh would have a hard time with having the baby at home. I wouldn't mind actually, even though I would prefer a birth center. Dh told me he would never be able to sleep in our bed again, lol and I think he's a little weirded out by the whole water birth thing too. He's more the "let me pace in the hallway until it's over and the doctor tells me I'm a daddy" kind of guy. He's wonderfully supportive of me, but honestly birth freaks him out. He was so nervous with Christian. I think he would enjoy an out of hospital birth a lot more. Even with my doula there and a birth plan, hospitals just seem to have a high stress feeling you know? He said he kept looking at all the monitors and then the doctors face to make sure everything was okay. My doula was busy helping me so there was no one to say "this is normal, don't worry!" I really want this to be a good experience for him too!

The reason I don't want to go on medicaid is partly the hassle, doing all the paperwork, plus we are in Grace, Idaho but trying to keep our Utah residency and want to have the baby in Logan. I don't know all the rules on medicaid wether you actually have to live in the state or be a resident to get it and Dh is possibly getting a new job this Summer/Fall which will pay too much for us to be on medicaid. I'd hate to have to switch to paying on our own right in the middle/end of the pregnancy.

I had Anne too! I prefer a female doctor. I thought she was great but unfortunately she didn't deliver Christian either. She has weekends off and I had Christian Sunday morning.

Brandilyn- how was your husband with the home birth? Was he on board from the beginning or did it take some convincing? If you don't mind me asking why did you find your home birth so magical? Glad too know I'm not the only one who is nervous about not having insurance and hasn't been to the doctor even though she's already in the second trimester! I waited until 16 weeks with Christian I think.

Adelina- Your doctor sounds great. It's nice to see a doctor that's so enthusiastic about natural birth!

Hmmm... how to describe my favorite experience ever... LOL

It was incredibly calming. I wasn't hooked up to stuff the whole time and told to stay in bed. I got in and out of the tub when I wanted. I could do whatever I wanted to make myself comfortable. I didn't have her in our bed as I quickly discovered it was more painful to lay down. So we spread out some shower curtains on the bedroom carpet. And we didn't have to do any clean up, the midwife took care of everything for us. It was so fun to lay down in bed with her next to me afterwords. And she set up a scale right by the bed so I could see how much she weighed.

Like I said, my husband caught her and he is so proud of that LOL On the birth certificate it even says that he is the one that delivered her. How sweet! He was always okay with a homebirth, didn't need convincing. He is very calm in those types of situations and it helped me a lot. We never had it in our minds that we COULDN'T go to the hospital, if something would've come up then we would have changed our plans. But there were no surprises during the pregnancy and we knew to watch out for PreE since I'd had it with Brielle.

I understand that homebirth isn't for everybody. Maybe you could set up an appointment with a midwife to have all your questions answered.

Good luck!

Thank you Amy! I contacted Launa and she told me they are hoping to open the birth center in 6 to 8 weeks! She had a spot for me too. We will be setting up an initial consultation within the next couple of weeks. I am SO excited.

I just wanted to say congrats on your pregnancy and when are you due? I am due in oct. 23.

Thanks, I'm due October 11th.

Awesome! I hope you find a dr. I go to Dr. Firth and love him but I hope you find exactly what your looking for...