About two weeks ago, we interviewed a pediatrician in town in our quest to find a caregiver for the boy. We have strong, but not strident, views on how we want to treat our boy, and it was important for us to find someone who shared our views. But we also wanted very much for it to be a conversation with possible doctors, and not a list of demands.
The doc we saw two weeks ago started off this part of the conversation on the right foot. She said, "Now, I meet parents sometimes who tell me they don't want their child immunized. And I make it very clear to those parents that perhaps they should find another provider because this isn't the right practice for them."
That alone made us more comfortable discussing other areas of concern: nursing (yes--and the practice has a lactation consultant on staff) and circumcision (nope, not for our kid, and maybe I'll write about that separately) chief among them. The doctor supported our decisions in both cases. She said in the United States today, circumcision is a cultural choice instead of a medical one. In agreeing with her, I unfortunately started to become the lectury parent neither of us wanted to be, but once I realized what I was doing, I piped down and let her change the subject.
Finally, there was something about her demeanor that we found very comforting. She reminded us both, in fact, of my mom who, I should add, was a medical professional herself for decades.
So, that's one gigantic decision out of the way: the boy has a doctor we're comfortable with. I spent time this morning finding out our next steps, such as how do we let the HMO know about the pediatrician, when should we tell the OB-GYN (at Jen's next appt, preferably), and how billing works between the time he's born and the time the HMO has official record of his provider's name and info.
It's funny, but in these moments of minutiae and nitty-gritty detail, I really feel like I'm doing something concrete to care for our son, even though he's not even here yet.
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