NEWBIE here with a FEW questions!

You have to be independent to be married to a physician. When I went into labor with my daughter, my husband went to the hospital and worked his shift. He was definitely there when my daughter was born, but I labored at home by myself for about 8 hours. His paternity leave was two days. That's all he gets in his program. But, I had friends and family come in to help me, and I knew that this is all part of the deal.


Oh dear...please don't say that. I am due July 4th. DH starts 1st rotation of intern year June 27th. I am so afraid that is going to happen to me too. Acutally, I am almost guarenteeing that will happen to me too. We will be in La Crosse WI and our familes will be in Florida, Pennsylvania and New York. I am quite terrified to be honest. I need to just grow a backbone, right??!!! But it is my first baby and I don't know what to expect

[Deebs]

Okay, don't be scared. The most important thing you need to do it tell DH to call his PD and let him/her know that is when you are due, and that you DON'T have any family/friends in the area. They probably haven't decided which of the interns will be on what rotations during what months yet. Hopefully the PD or Chiefs (whomever makes the decision) can put him on a "light" month in July. A lot of DH's first month was orientation, so it would have actually been easier if that was the case. Unfortunately, I had my daughter when DH was on a tougher rotation. Plus, I'm assuming you're delivering at Gunderson. They are supposed to be tremendous for L&D (I work in the Prenatal dept at a hospital only an hour away).

Also, I'm assuming your financial situation is probably similar to ours (it sucks, quite frankly), but if I had it to do over again, I would hire a Doula. If you want more info on that, PM me.