The goal of our practice is to provide you with comprehensive care for your pregnancy. As a patient, you have the choice of being followed through your pregnancy by either the midwives (if low risk) or the physicians.

You will be asked to identify the hospital of your choice for your delivery. Our physicians deliver at both the Finley Hospital and Mercy Medical Center. Kathe and Deb deliver at Finley Hospital exclusively.

We ask that you have a pregnancy test in our office or an outside laboratory to confirm the pregnancy. After confirmation is received, we will set up your first appointment to gather a thorough medical history, a family history, and past pregnancy history. We also go over general educational materials and answer any questions you may have. This appointment is generally scheduled 8-10 weeks after the first day of your last period. If the midwives will follow you, we ask that you identify this at the time of scheduling so we can schedule this interview with the midwives. For physician patients, this appointment is held with our Registered Nurses.

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The next appointment is routinely scheduled around 12 weeks after your last period. This is a complete physical examination by either the physicians or midwives. This includes a breast exam, a Pap smear, and standard STD testing. Following this appointment, you will be scheduled for appointments at 4-week intervals until you reach 28 weeks. From 28-36 weeks, you will be scheduled every two weeks, and weekly thereafter.

At your regular prenatal visits, we will weigh you, check your blood pressure, check your urine, measure uterus size, and listen for baby's heart sounds. We will also check for swelling or any other problems that may arise. You are encouraged to let us know about any bleeding, fluid leakage, pelvic pressure, headaches, visual changes, swelling, pain in urination or constipation. Ultrasounds are generally ordered between 16 and 20 weeks. They may be ordered at any time based on the individual circumstances of your pregnancy. We typically have patients go to either Finley Hospital or Mercy Medical Center for their ultrasounds unless we can get the information we need with our office ultrasound.

We ask that you rotate your appointments among the physicians or the midwives. This assists the providers to become acquainted with all patients in case they are on call when you have a question or go into labor. For example, if you select physicians, you will begin with a health interview with the nurses, have a physical exam and two follow-up visits with one of the doctors, then schedule appointments with the other three over the latter part of the pregnancy.

If you are a midwife patient, you may begin with a health interview and physical with Deb, then alternate seeing Kathe and Deb for the remainder of the pregnancy. Midwife patients also see the physicians on two occasions during your pregnancy, and this can be for two of your routine visits.

MEDICATIONS IN PREGNANCY / LACTATION