What to Expect with Labor and Delivery at a Military Hospital

My husband joined the Army in February of 2006 and moved our family to Georgia in September of that same year. We immediately started to try to have another child. We have a five year old son and felt that the time was right to have another child. In early November I found out that I was pregnant. I called right away to make my first OBGYN appointment to confirm the pregnancy and that is when the nightmare began!

When I called the Tri-Care appointment line the lady was very nice, but was not able to get me an appointment for about a month. She also explained that this first appointment would be an OBGYN orientation. Since this was my first time using Military Insurance I wanted to call a week prior to the appointment to confirm and check to see if there was anything that I needed to bring with me (I.D. Card, Insurance Card, etc.). The lady that answered the phone this time was not so nice and told me that I must go to get a blood test to confirm that I am truly pregnant before I can go to the orientation. I explained that I already had an appointment scheduled and thought that the appointment was to confirm that I was pregnant.. The lady then proceeded to tell me that there was no way that I would have had an appointment without first having a blood test done. She then went on to place me on hold and check her system to see what was going on. When she came back on the line she said that someone must have overlooked the fact that I did not have a blood test, but no apology was provided to me for basically calling me a liar.

Once I went to the orientation they explained what the visits would be like, provided us with some reading materials and prenatal vitamins. They seemed very informative and scheduled the prenatal appointment for us right away. However, they failed to mention that you may (and usually do) see a different doctor and/or nurse every appointment and that you have no control over who you see or who delivers your baby. I went to my first prenatal visit the next day and the doctor I saw was very nice. At this point I thought everything would be fine.