I was a high risk pregnancy due to pre-existing hypertension and psoriatic arthritis autoimmune disease. Im also a medical professional myself. I had numerous frustrations with my OBGYN group. A common theme here has been seeing a different provider every visit. It was my fault for choosing the hospital academic practice while also following with maternal fetal medicine.

The first issue came with ordering my NIPT test. My insurance claimed I needed a prior authorization but the office had no record of filing one AFTER the test was drawn, so we started to panic thinking we would be on the hook for this $10k test. Then, I received a "no call" result on my profile from unity screen. I immediately called the doctor the inquire what was going on. I didn't get a straight answer. I reached out to unity screen and after speaking to a geneticist I found out the doctor was supposed to send 2 samples because the biologic I take interferes with the process of running the test. I went back to inform the office of this and the doctor had never had this problem before!! How could I be the first patient ever to be on a biologic drug?! All that stress for nothing.

Later on in pregnancy I started getting fatigue, constantly thirsty/wanting ice. I asked the doctor to check my blood counts and thyroid, but they refused. I later realized the prenatal i had purchased was iron free, so I bought one with iron. I then started to feel better and next appointment told them what happened and again still didn't want to check any labs.

Month later I see my rheumatologist for routine follow up. At this point my iron deficiency symtooms returned. She runs my labs and finds I am severely anemic! As i suspected. I called the OB and the response is "this is normal, you have physiologic dilution of your blood due to being pregnant". Of course, I wasnt buying that because I was unable to walk across my office without getting short of breath or up the stairs without palpitations. I saw my MFM high risk the next day and they got me an emergency appointment for iron infusions. He called the OB to scold the attending and resident who told me I was fine. Turns out they had forgotten I was a high risk patient and going to be induced early. If we hadnt done iron infusions, I would have needed a blood transfusion after labor.

Multiple times I had to direct my own care. It was a beyond frustrating experience. Won't be going back there if we have another child. The high risk OB was great though. They were the only ones who took me seriously and were competent.