Making Moves on Other Hospitals

Okay, we have appointments to tour the labor & delivery units at Loyola and at Prentice Women's Hospital in the city. Both L&D units boast two on-staff lactation consultants, and I've spoken to one of each set about the kind of care I can expect at each place. I do think however that I want my own consultant hired privately, someone to do housecalls. The lact consults seem great, but they claim to have trained the nurses for initial bedside help, and that was the case last time, and I had a terrible time with all the nurses giving conflicting instructions. So "the nurses are great" doesn't cut it with me. And I might still do a doula. There is an Oak Park doula who comes highly recommended, and has an impressive website, but her big thing is hypnotherapy for a drug-free birth. But remembering the extreme pain doesn't encourage me that hypnosis is going to work. And I'm gettin' that epidural I've no doubt. A friend's doula does massage therapy, and that's much more my speed. I'm calling her next. (Thanks Amanda!) Thinking back over my experience at West Sub, it would have been nice to have an advocate to step in for us when Ben and I were dealing with all that was happening. I have one recommendation for a doc at Prentice, and she is covered by my insurance. I have a list of docs that deliver at Loyola that are covered too, but no recommendations yet. I see the same one that delivered Tyler on the list--not the one I'm seeing now, but at the same practice, who was the one on call when I finally got to pushing. I'm not sure about her. She's not much different from the doc I've got now. I don't know yet if doulas or lactation consultants are covered by my insurance. If not, this might be an expensive birthing.