10 weeks, 2 days - Sticking with my doctor

I looked up the doctor down south of Atlanta that my current doctor, Dr. Lawson, recommended to me online.  She met this other doctor during med school and thought I'd like her a lot.  After doing some preliminary research, I think I'm going to stick with Dr. Lawson.  Here are their respective profiles:

Dr. Dean (recommended by Dr. Lawson):

Biography

Dr. Neely B. Dean received her medical degree from Mercer University School of Medicine in 2003 and completed her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency training at Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah, Georgia in 2007. She obtained her Bachelors of Science in Biology from the University of Georgia. Dr. Dean is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Prior to joining Piedmont Physicians, Dr. Dean was in practice in Newnan with PAPP Clinic. She is a Georgia native and moved to Newnan after completing her residency in 2007. Dr. Dean is a Fellow of the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a member of the Georgia Obstetrical and Gynecology Society. Her practice is focused on general Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as adolescent gynecology.

In her free time, Dr Dean enjoys traveling, cooking, and spending time with her husband and daughter.

Dr. Lawson (recommended by my favorite doctor ever in my whole life, Dr. Lashgari)
Dr. Lawson returned to her home state of Georgia after practicing medicine in the Arlington, VA/Washington, DC area for seven years. She earned her medical degree from Mercer University School of Medicine and is a 1998 graduate of Georgia Tech. Dr. Lawson completed her Residency at Georgetown University Hospital, where she served as Chief Administrative Resident and received top honors for clinical excellence in Gynecologic Oncology. During her Residency, she participated in several research projects and is published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. In her free time, Dr. Lawson enjoys reading, traveling and running with her two dogs.

Those aren't long biographies and they don't say a whole lot, but what I took from that is that Dr. Dean has done all of her schooling, work, research, and education in Georgia without any input from the world outside.  She may have done great things and published great articles, been given high accolades and won great awards, but there's nothing on her bio that says that to me.  Dr. Lawson, on the other hand, was educated in GA and DC and VA, has had prestigious honors and publications, and has done a number of things to expand her world view.  I get uncomfortable with the idea of people learning everything they know from the same place and all I can think is that if something went wrong with this pregnancy/baby while I was seeing Dr. Dean, would I always wonder if it would have been different if I'd been with Dr. Lawson?  I think the answer is yes.  And, since I'm already a higher risk pregnancy due to my <ahem> advanced maternal age <eye roll>, not to mention the complications with delivery of Henry (low amniotic fluid), I don't want to risk anything.  Actually, I didn't even realize that the low amniotic fluid was considered a complication until I was doing some reading about complications for THIS pregnancy.  I knew they wanted to get Henry out quickly, but they did a really good job of not panicking me.  In fact, such a good job that I had no real idea that anything was wrong.

Anyway, a small world view may be fine for a family practice doctor, but when it comes to the health and delivery of my baby, I want the best I can get.  And I don't feel like that's Dr. Dean... whom I've never met before and have made that judgement solely on her online biography.  But I really like Dr. Lawson.  And I like that she came so very very highly recommended by a doctor that I know and trust so very very much.  So.  It's a long drive.  It's very inconvenient.  It's frankly a big pain in the butt.  But a big pain in the butt in order to have the peace of mind that I'm giving my new baby the best care that I can is reason enough for me.  After all, I stayed in DC for an additional 6 months just so that I could deliver Henry with people I trust and it's not like that was a cake walk.  In fact, it was extraordinarily inconvenient.  But I stand by that decision as the right one.  And I think I'll come to decide that it's the right one for this baby, too.  Maybe after I have this baby, I can go to Dr. Dean as my gyn and see what I think of her then, if I like her, I can use her for our NEXT baby.  But for this go around, I think I'm sticking with the known entity.

Oh, plus Dr. Lawson said that she doesn't start rotating through docs in her practice until you're 30 weeks along plus she said that, since I live so far away and my baby came so quickly last time, that we might want to consider scheduling an inducement at 39 weeks just to be sure we have time to get to the hospital.  And that way, we could ensure that she is the one who delivers for us.  I'm not sure I'm really into scheduled inducements, but we'll see.  We've got a long time to go between then and now.