TLDR: I did not feel cared for, supported, or welcomed at this practice except when with the kind…read morenurses (they do have the best nurses!).
This practice is not physician-owned, but is a subsidiary of HCA Health. In other words, the doctors are employees (of HCA) and not owners of their own practice. I realized this after I had been visiting the office several months into my pregnancy during the most vulnerable period of my life when I needed the most support. Unfortunately, the fact that they are employees and not owners was, I felt, reflected in the level of care I received while pregnant. Early during pregnancy, I thought I might have a serious condition (which thankfully turned out just to be muscle strain), and when I called to ask if I could speak with a doctor or go in to be seen as I thought this might be an emergency, I was told they do not for any reason accept walk-ins, even for established patients, and that I could go to an ER (ER doctors are notoriously ignorant regarding OB issues and would have been of no help). I was very surprised that they would tell an established and concerned pregnant patient with a developing baby to go take her concerns to a random doctor who is not an OB. The doctors also would not call me back-I got a call back from a nurse. Again, these OBs are employees, so the level of ownership and care will be different from what one would expect from a physician-owned office.
Most of my points of contact were with Dr Baldassaro and Dr Ahmed, the former who maintained an air of brisk professionalism, whatever her personal feelings toward me might have been, while the latter was unable to do even that. (Dr Parks and Dr Foster were lovely. I had the fewest points of contact with them, but they were professional and approachable in my one interaction with them each.) Dr Ahmed's demeanor and speech dripped with annoyance and disdain. At one point, she told me my birth would cost "70-80k" (though insurance would cover most of it) because of all of the different costs that would add up, "like the NICU"-a strange statement to make considering I had had a healthy pregnancy without any indications my baby would need the NICU (the birth ended up costing $10,000 and my baby never ended up in the NICU). When I expressed my concerns about certain procedures (like getting six ultrasounds in the last two months of pregnancy after I had already had three ultrasounds prior-the six additional ones I felt were excessive and unnecessary, though I understood the financial incentives for them as a business), and said I had googled the necessity and potential risks of getting so many ultrasounds, I was swiftly rebuked; "Google is the WORST place to get medical advice," Ahmed replied condescendingly. (I personally disagree and learned a lot from my Internet searches during pregnancy.) I was also pressured to induce my baby at 39 weeks because I had high blood pressure one afternoon (which dropped that evening and remained lower for the remainder of my pregnancy), a couple symptoms of preeclampsia, and the fact that I was of advanced maternal age (I had been 35 for three months). I was repeatedly told that there would be "no benefits" to waiting a single day more. I pushed back and insisted on not inducing until the 41st week. Dr Ahmed was clearly displeased with my decision not to immediately induce and reminded me that since I had signs of preeclampsia, I could have a stillbirth or suffer terrible, life-threatening consequences myself (including potentially "a stroke"), but she said she could not "force me" to stay and get induced if I did not want to, so I went home. I wanted to have a natural, spontaneous, unmedicated labor if possible, which I knew would be nearly impossible if I were induced (pitocin, the drug that is used to induce labor, causes artificially intense contractions, which almost always leads to an epidural because of the intense pain). I went home and a week later, went into spontaneous labor at 40 weeks, and had the quickest birth of my dreams at the hospital without an epidural or any complications. My baby was perfectly healthy, as was I. I hardly bled (I was told by the nurses I bled about 1/4 of the average amount), in large part I think because I did not listen to the OB's advice to take two baby aspirins daily during my pregnancy, which they had recommended due to my age (I went home and googled the side effects of taking two baby aspirins daily, and one was that I might bleed more during labor and delivery-so I skipped the aspirins). I realized I felt anxious and a sense of dread at every visit to this office, so as soon as I completed my required post-partum visit here, I decided to look elsewhere for an OB who would offer kind, compassionate, and supportive care.
