Good morning ladies and gents, I've got kind of a complicated question. I have a Marine who will be having a baby around december. Tricare has told her she has no option but to deliver at the Naval Hospital, and that there is no gaurantee that the OB/GYN doctor she has been seeing so far will deliver her. She wants to have the same doctor throughout her pregnancy, and I guess has heard horror stories about the way the Naval Hospital treats you when you deliver there. Is there any way she could deliver at a civilian hospital or with a Midwife or birth center off base? 

no matter where she delivers there is a chance that her doctor may not be the one delivering her baby. If she is the Marine I am pretty positive that she has zero say in what hospital she wants to deliver at. If she is the dependent she can switch to standard. 

I had two boys there, never had my doctor delivery. Now that we are on recruiting duty and civilian hospital, my doctor delivers me no matter what. She has deliverd every one of her patients. 

Send her TAD to something in San Diego...... 

If she drives 50 miles out of the way. They told me if I wanted to give birth at another hospital it needs to be at least 50 miles away. If I had to do it again I would switch to standard and never step foot in that place. My experience was horrible and scary and I wouldnt wish it on anyone and it was the doctors fault. Good luck to your Marine. 

no matter where she delivers there is a chance that her doctor may not be the one delivering her baby. If she is the Marine I am pretty positive that she has zero say in what hospital she wants to deliver at. If she is the dependent she can switch to standard. 

That's what I thought. I'm pretty ire active doesn't have a choice since they are stationed there and are suppose to be at work doesn't matter how far they live they go there. 

I'm a former a Marine and I begged the person in charge at the obgyn office in the naval hospital to let me go off base. The guy I spoke with said I had no choice but to have my son here. He did however refer me to a midwife that he felt was best suited for me (Lt. Dell). Lt. Dell was amazing however when it was time for my son to come out she wasnt on duty. I had a very bad and complicated labor experience and to be honest with you I didn't care who delivered him, I just wanted him out! If your Marine is concerned at all about who all will be seeing her vjj, then she's going to have to get over it. Due to my complicated labor experience, I was there for awhile and my husband counted 13 different people who had to check my lady parts. There's really no way for her to deliver the baby off base. We considered driving far out when it was time but the only problem you have with that is the hospital turning you away until your contractions are closer and now your far from home. 

I delivered my daughter almost 2 months early at a civilian hospital 30 miles away from camp pendleton naval hospital. 100% covered by tricare. They basically said that you must be taken by ambulance or go to the emergency room first for it to be covered. I was visiting family in SD and went into preterm labor. Her 3 week stay in the NICU at grossmont hospital was covered as well :) I guess if it is an emergency situation, Tricare will cover it no matter where it's at. Im sure you CAN'T just mosey on in and say "I want to have my baby here" lol
I'm not sure about active duty though, but I would assume that if it was an emergency it would be covered, you don't really have a choice. But this doesn't mean use this as a way of tampering with the rules. Just letting you know it is possible. 

the only way she can choose is to go to a birthing center or contact a midwife and pay out of pocket. personally i would never birth in a hospital to begin with. did it once on pendleton and even though i got my dr it was still not what i would consider a wonderful experience. if she can afford it, she should look into it. there are some awesome midwives in san diego county 

People over react on all these horror stories from the naval hospital. I had a better delivery in the naval hospital than i did in a civilian hospital. As far as your OB being there to deliver, the nurses take care of everything right up until its time to push. So its usually not all that long that the doc would be there. And at that point, lots of moms just want that baby out. 

Its very common that a specific Dr wouldn't be at the delivery. Even in civilan life. When I had a civilan Dr there was a team. They recommended seeing different Drs throughout the pregnancy because the Dr who would deliver would be the on call Dr. I doubt she'll get out of going to the Naval hospital. They are being really strict with all the DOD budget cuts. We've had issues lately with our son. They wouldn't release us to Childrens Hospital and he's civlian.

I can say I delivered at the Naval Hospital a little over a year ago and our experience was pretty darn good. Loved all the staff. Our son went into distress, they coded him, and a ton of additional staff came in. Everything was so calm and matter of fact. A lot of what happened I didn't know until afterward. Our oldest son had similar problems at a civilan hospital and though I loved those Drs too, it was a mess in the delivery. When I started pushing our sons heart stopped. I heard the heartbeat monitor thing go flat. The nurse started yelling for the Dr, the Dr came in screaming at everyone. They were yelling at me to push, no time for a c-section. I started panicing and crying because everyone else was crazy. That didn't help me in pushing. With the naval hospital I felt they did a wonderful job of keeping me calm since I had to deliver a baby. :-) They took every precaution afterward to assure our son was ok, healthy and recovered properly. 

I'm assuming she is active duty?

Unfortunatly her only option is to deliver at a naval hospital, or pay out of pocket and be seen somewhere else. I have know of a couple active duty moms to pay out of pocket to be seen by a midwife and either have a homebirth, or go to a birthing center. 

I had an awesome experience at the naval hospital..I was high risk and my doctor wasn't there the day I was INDUCED! it didn't matter cause when it was time to push I had a doctor there allll day but when the time came I had a midwife deliver my daughter and the experience was so stressfree and awesome! I wouldnt want it any other way! 

I don't think people overreact to these stories... I've had three children two at civi hospital before military life and one at camp pendleton- it was the most awful experience ever. Besides the fact that they almost killed me & my son - just the atmosphere the uncaring nurses. I would rather have a baby in my bathtub then experience that again...

Now just like anything I would make sure she has support and someone follows that baby around evvvverywhere!!! 

Do you have to deliver at Pendleton if you live more than 30 minutes from the base? 

If your active duty yes. If your a spouse and live that far no. I live 56 miles and I'm on tricare prime I just had my baby this morning at a civilian hospital.