I am very curious, if a women is receives no prenatal care then who would be the doctor to actually deliver the baby in the hospital? Do they have doctors on call that deliver babies from mothers that are not their patients? I am receiving prenatal care but I am fighting with my insurance company over what is covered(it's a really long story) but just curious to what were to happen if my doctor drops me as a patient.
The doctor on-call would deliver, whether you're a patient of him/her or not. That's why they're on-call.
Even if you are receiving pre-natal care and have a doctor, whoever is working at the time you deliver will deliver your baby. Unless you have a scheduled induction or c-section that fits your doc's schedule, there is no expectation that your doctor will actually deliver your baby.
I had to switch doctors a few months into my first pregnancy because my doc went out on maternity leave. Then due to an insurance change I had to switch again in my 7th month. When I went into labor, I was there for almost 24 hours and the doc who finally ended up being the one to catch the baby was my first doc, who was back from her leave. Totally random but nice. I had never seen the two other docs who attended to me earlier in my labor.
For my 2nd delivery, my OB happened to be working and did the delivery. With my 3rd, she wasn't on that day so I had a total stranger do the delivery.
My 4th was a scheduled induction and the doc was there for that.
So the short answer is...it doesn't matter who your doc is, whoever is on rotation that day will deliver your baby. It's nice if it's your own doc or someone else in his or her practice who you've met before but not necessary by any means.
Out of three deliveries, two were delivered by the on call doctor and not my OB. Not because I didn't have prenatal care,but because my doctor was on vacation both times!
They'll have someone for you. The OB who delivered my DD was not the same OB I saw most of my pregnancy. It was the person from the practice who was on call that night. If there's no one from the practice, someone is always on call for the hospital itself. We had an insurance hiccup when it came time to spring DD from the hospital and they found a pediatrician who took our insurance and gave her the required approval to leave.
The hospital will have a doctor on call. I almost wish I'd gotten an on-call doctor with mine, hopefully they would have been more professional than my actual doctor who was on the phone (nurse holding it to her ear) while I was pushing because her teenaged son missed the bus and she was trying to find him a ride home. I felt really cared for.
The hospital will find one of the doctors on call. The staff in Labor and Delivery know all the OB/GYN's and all the pediatricians.
Don't worry. You will have a doctor.
