My Compliments to Dr Robbins

I was delighted to work with Dr. Richard Robbins at my last birth. He knew this mom wanted a natural, lesser intervened birth. Her water broke and she waited several hours to go to the hospital. I arrived a few hours after she was there, not yet in labor. The Pitocin was started and I was there to meet her soon after.  Dr. Robbins arrived a short while later and entered the room with the greeting of, "Hey Stud!" to the mom. I loved it. He chatted about how his wife had a natural birth with their first two but the third was a much longer labor and after several hours she chose the epidural. He mentioned that this baby was a bigger baby by a pound. This caused my client to ask if a pound made a huge difference. She asked this since the sonographer had said this baby was at least a pound bigger than her first one. Dr. Robbins said, "Nope! Should not be a problem at all!" He stayed a short while and when he left he said as he shook his hands in the air, "Let's keep these out and let you do what you are doing so well!" I wanted to kiss the man! He was so encouraging to my client!


Later after coming up to the labor unit again, he stopped by to see if she wanted to be checked. She asked did she need to be and he said, "Nope! Some women need to know how they are doing, but you are doing great! The baby looks great, the contractions look great, I don't think you need anything!" Wow, I again wanted to kiss him! He was affirming that she indeed was following her instincts and doing great without anyone interfering!

Later my client was feeling like things were not progressing the way she expected. This labor was making her doubt her ability to do this much longer without medication. Another specialist and her first nurse had mentioned some things that caused them to doubt her ability to birth this baby without surgery and this was entering her mind now. She had expected more progress and had only dilated four centimeters in six hours and she had specific pain that indicated that the previous mentioned issue with a cysts, may be causing her to not progress effectively. She did appear to be struggling beyond the labor pain she had had previously. We were all beginning to wonder if medication may prove helpful.

She asked to speak to Dr. Robbins and he returned with his sparkling eyes and genuine smile. He examined her and suggested that she give herself a gift of an epidural on this holiday morn. So, the IV fluid was started to bolus her to ready her body for the epidural. But before he mentioned this he confirmed that her labor was progressing just fine. He smiled and left the room.

Within ten minutes she was grunting and had strong urges to push. The nurse did a quick exam and confirmed she was not fully dilated but had already progressed a centimeter since the doctor's exam. She called for Dr. Robbins to return. He was in the room within minutes. He examined her and told her there was still some cervix but that she was doing a great job with her instinctive pushing! He told her if that felt better to do, do it! He called for a set up and sat on the end of the bed.  The mom pushed for less than 10 minutes and he gently guided her daughter up for her to reach down and bring to her chest. He never guided her to do anything differently than what she was instinctively doing.

I have done births with the Roswell OBGYN Midwives before and know of these back up physicians and had some contact with them before. But I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed with this wonderful physician today! It is a pleasure to encounter a physician that believes that women know how to birth. It is great to see them step in to do as little as is needed and support the decisions a woman makes regarding her birth. It was a wonderful birth to behold!