Transcription:
How to Choose a Perfect Pediatrician and Newborn Care

Melanie Cole (Host): I remember when I was pregnant with my first child how nervous I was about finding a pediatrician, and you wouldn’t think that would be so nerve wracking. But when you think about it, your pediatrician is going to be with you for the next 19-20 years of your child’s life. So, it’s important that you kind of get it right and find somebody that you can absolutely trust with your most precious possession, which is your child. My guest today is Dr. Neela Sethi. She’s a pediatrician with Henry May Newhall Hospital. Dr. Sethi, I’d like to just start with the role of the pediatrician. As I said, you guys are with our kids up until they are not really considered kids anymore. What are you doing for families?

Neela Sethi, M.D. (Guest): The role of the pediatrician is complex and it’s a beautiful relationship and it can be – you have highs and lows and everything in between and what I always tell new mothers is you have to remember that you are vulnerable when you first have a baby. Your hormones are all over the place, you’re trying to figure out how to just navigate this new mom world. And your pediatrician is your biggest advocate. It’s a shoulder to cry on. It’s advice given. It’s a hand to hold. And you really want to feel supported from the very second that you have that baby and like you said, all the way through the difficult teen aged years and even beyond. So, it is an important relationship.

Host: Well, it certainly is and I’m lucky that I absolutely love my pediatrician because as you say, a shoulder to cry on and a hand to hold. Boy, you pediatricians, it’s a labor of love. Because you are available in the middle of the night and you’re available at 6 in the morning if the kid has a fever and we’re like oh my God, is this too high. So, how do we find someone like you? How do we go out and find a pediatrician? How soon should we start?

Dr. Sethi: I tell parents, right when you get pregnant, I think you should just start thinking about it. you should start kind of just doing the research and you can go online, you can talk to friends. I love – we get so many of referrals from the OB-GYNs in town because they know us, and we have a built in relationship with them. But start putting your feelers out there and just ask a lot of questions to the people around you and try to ask people that are similar in personality to you and people with a similar sort of moral code and similar morals and values to you and see who they really love.

Because chances are, you are going to feel the same way. I know I’ve been in private practice, this is my 13^th year and I would say 80% of my referrals at this point are from friends of friends. Because if one family loves me; their best friends are very likely to kind of like me too. So, I think as soon as you can start just putting feelers out there and start doing some research, when that baby is in your tummy, the better. And like I said, talking to you OB really helps a lot because they have a lot of built in relationships.

Host: That’s great advice. I found my pediatrician through my best friend, so I see what you’re saying there. Should you call that person, and do you get to meet the pediatrician in person? Do you get to talk to them on the phone? How do you go about meeting them and what questions would you like them to ask a potential pediatrician?

Dr. Sethi: It’s such a good question. So, yes, you can definitely meet, and I always recommend meeting in person. I just don’t think that – I mean let’s back up and say that what you read online is not always true. Correct? So, you can have the most wonderful doctor, have the most terrible reviews and vice versa. You can have a doctor that I don’t necessarily think is the right fit for a patient and have 100 five-star reviews. So, you can’t believe what you read online, and I always forewarn patients of that.

I think there is something really important about meeting someone face to face. There’s something really beautiful about a human connection that I think is oftentimes lost in medicine, especially modern medicine these days, where you don’t have that connection where you really feel how someone makes eye contact, how their voice feels to you, how comforting they are and then also, what are their views. What are their views on some big topics in terms of vaccines and anticipatory guidance and office hours and availability and you have to connect on so many different levels when it comes to your child. But I think really meeting face to face makes a big difference.

And I always tell patients, if you love me, chances are I loved you too, because it goes both ways from a doctor patient and from the patient to the doctor. So, yes, go in, ask questions. I think in terms of the biggest questions is what their overall view of medicine is. Are they a type of doctor that tends to prescribe a lot or prescribe a little? Are they ones that tend to want to see you more often or less often? How do their office hours run? Are they more 9-5 or do they have extended hours? I know in our office, which is a big kind of positive, we do a walk-in clinic all day, every day. So, though we don’t really love it, the patients do and that’s been in practice for like 17 or 18 years where you don’t actually have to have an appointment to be seen and that’s a big draw for families when they feel like they can’t get an appointment and they have to be forced to go to Urgent Care, they can actually just come to our office. So, that’s a big plus.

I think after hours. How available are they after hours and is it them that answers the phone or is it covering doctor or is it a nurse practitioner? Is it an answering service? Who is going to answer your phone calls like you said when you at 6 in the morning or 2 a.m. when your child has a fever? Do you feel supported and is that person going to be available to you? Those are some of the basic ones and then there are a lot more questions that we can go through as well.

Host: Well, those are all really important questions. I would like to ask a pediatrician will you move into my home with me, so that I know that you’re around? But you are always kind of there anyway. Does the size, as you talk about who is going to answer the phone, does the size of the practice matter? Should you be looking for a practice with many doctors so that they can fill in for each other? Or are you guys too overworked if it’s a small practice? Does that matter to us?

Dr. Sethi: I think that’s a really good question. I think we are part of a seven doctor group and I have done a range. I’ve been at this practice for nine years, but I was at a smaller practice before this where it was just two of us. So, I think there is – there are pros and cons to every type of pediatric practice. With the smaller practice, yes, you generally do get more personalized care and you do see your doctor and you do talk to your doctor more often and some people really love that. Now in a bigger practice, there is a lot of infrastructure. So, for example, where we are at right now; you will always get one of our doctors to answer your phone call because we rotate one day out of every seven and we do one weekend out of every seven. So, there is nobody that cross covers us. There is nobody that covers our practices call.

The other thing is that because we have a larger office, we have a larger billing department, should there be billing issues. There’s not just one person that does billing. We have four people who do billing. We have five people that are checking you in, so the wait times tend to be shorter because the office runs a little bit more smoothly with a larger infrastructure.

So, I think it kind of depends on what you need and what you are looking for when you have your baby. I will say, a lot of times for baby number one, you need a lot more hand holding. You need a lot more – you don’t have the confidence that you do when you have your second, third or your fourth baby and so you want to have someone that’s going to be readily available. I will say I have women that meet me with their third or their fourth and they are like, I just want in and out. I don’t really need the hand holding. I just don’t want to sit in your waiting room for an hour and when I need a vaccine or a school form or a sports physical, I don’t want to wait three months to see you. So, I think your needs change as your baby grows and it depends on what baby number you are at as well.

Host: What a good point. And it’s a great point about the size of the practices too. So, now we’ve chosen a pediatrician. How do we know – how do you know to come see our baby once it’s born? Who tells you that and for newborn care, how often do you take the baby for well checks once we’ve just had that little baby?

Dr. Sethi: So, we are very blessed that we are affiliated with Henry Mayo Newhall and it’s a small kind of community hospital, so we actually see our babies in the hospital every day. And I do think that that really – I love that part because I think it starts just that early relationship with families because you are so overwhelmed in the hospital and you see so many different nurses and so many different people coming in and out of your room. I mean really, I think the studies suggest it is like every 20 minutes you’ve got somebody coming in and out of your room. And so it’s just nice to see a familiar face. So, that’s the first thing. So, we see them every day that they are in the hospital and then we see them 24 hours after discharge in our office.

So, if you can imagine for a vaginal delivery, we are seeing you for three or four days in a row, for C-sections sometimes we are seeing you five and six days in a row. After that initial visit, in our office 24 hours after discharge, we usually see you every other day or if you have jaundice issues or weight gain issues or lactation concerns; it can be up to every day for the first four or five days and then we see you at the two week visit, two month, four months, six months, nine months, twelve months.

So, I always tell parents when they interview me, you’re going to see my face a lot. So, you better just get used to it. Because there are just a lot of visits in that first year and there are a lot of questions and concerns that come up and most parents are very reassured when they see that there are lots of visits. Because they’re worried. They’re nervous. They don’t know what to expect and they need to have someone say, this is how much formula, this is how much breastmilk, these are how many poops and pees you should see. These are the anticipatory milestones that you should meet. These are safety concerns.

I think those are all really important especially as a first time parent because you just don’t know those things.

Host: You definitely don’t and every single one of those points is so important to a parent. Tell us about the Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital New Center for Women and Newborns and what services are offered there.

Dr. Sethi: We are super excited for all the changes that are happening at the hospital and yes, we are catering the hospital more towards new mothers, to birthing mothers to better post-partum care to more private rooms, better post – post partum pediatric care. So, we have a lot of big changes, a lot of just a beautiful building that is going to make new mothers feel welcome and feel secure and to be able to labor in an environment with good infrastructure and beautiful scenery and great care which of course is of the utmost importance.

Host: Tell us your best advice as a pediatrician because this is a topic Dr. Sethi that we could talk about when we bring our babies in for so many different things or vaccination schedules. There is so much that goes into this. Give us your best advice, when we are choosing a pediatrician for the first time, first baby, what do you want us to know?

Dr. Sethi: I think this – I think the best advice I would give which really kind of holds true for parenting in general is to follow your gut instincts. There is a voice inside for every mother the second that you get pregnant. And it is a voice that is – can be dulled if you don’t listen to it, if you’re too busy and you’re hearing everybody tell you things that they think are true versus you really slowing down and listening to what your inner voice is saying and what your gut instinct is saying. Because 90% of maternal instinct is correct.

And if you can imagine that is a very powerful voice and I unfortunately see so many new mothers that get skewed by what grandma is saying and what friends are saying, what they are reading on the mommy blog and they don’t trust their own gut instinct and if you can find that voice and listen to that voice, you are going to succeed. Because one, you are going to trust what is happening inside of you because you know what’s best for your baby. And two, you are going to operate from a place of authenticity and the more authentic that you can be to yourself, the more that your child is going to feel that and the happier parent you will be. And that is lifelong lesson.

That is true when they are teenagers. That is true when they leave for college. Trusting that inner voice and not getting skewed from what people tell you and just from the business of life. We get so busy and we are rushing and rushing and rushing and we just dim our own light and we quiet our own inner voice and that is the worst thing that you can do as a parent. So, I tell all my new moms, slow down, calm, slow, make your environment peaceful, snuggle that baby, rock that baby and listen to what your heart is telling you because it will lead you in the right direction almost every single time and guess what, I’ll be there to support you.

Host: What a lovely sentiment and that’s something that every new parent needs to hear. I love snuggling babies and it actually lowers your blood pressure, I’m telling you and anxiety too. Thank you again Dr. Sethi for coming on and sharing your expertise and telling us what to look for when we are looking for probably the most important doctor in our lifetimes. So, thank you again and for more information on the new Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Center for Women and Newborns, please visit www.henrymayo.com, that’s www.henrymayo.com. This is It’s Your Health Radio. I’m Melanie Cole. Thanks for tuning in.