{"id":13157,"date":"2020-03-26T11:08:31","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T21:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/?p=13157"},"modified":"2020-03-26T11:10:38","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T21:10:38","slug":"doctors-delivering-doctors-helping-each-other-bring-life-into-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/doctors-delivering-doctors-helping-each-other-bring-life-into-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors Delivering Doctors: Helping each other bring life into the world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

March 26, 2020 —

Featured photo: Dr. Corrie Miller with her newborn. Vina Cristobal photo.<\/em>

Written by Marybeth Kotrodimos

UHP has a large and impressive OB\/GYN department.\u00a0 In fact, our doctors have probably delivered more babies than any other healthcare group on Oahu.\u00a0 So who do our OB\/GYN doctors turn to when they are having babies?\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, three of our doctors who work together in our OB\/GYN Department at Kapiolani agreed to speak with us about their shared experience in caring for or being cared for by their colleagues and how it has affected the way they approach their patients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past fall, Dr. Cori-Ann Hirai<\/strong> cared for Dr. Corrie Miller<\/strong> when she was pregnant and delivered her baby. At the time, Dr. Hirai<\/strong> was pregnant and being cared for by Dr. Kimberly Nagamine<\/strong>, who has since delivered her baby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although we spoke with these doctors separately, they each reported similar feelings about being involved in this most important time in each other\u2019s lives.

\"\"
Dr. Kimberly Nagamine. Vina Cristobal photo. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was very special. I have delivered maybe thousands of babies at this point, but this was a unique experience,\u201d said Dr. Nagamine about caring for Dr. Hirai and delivering her baby.  \u201cIt was very surreal to see the baby come into the world, though I had taken care of her throughout her whole pregnancy.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Nagamine said that this first time delivering the baby of a friend \u201csort of refreshed the reason why\u201d she initially went into obstetrics. \u201cSometimes you lose sight of the fact that is a child that has been born, and that the mother\u2019s life has totally and completely changed from the moment that they bring the baby home.\u00a0 I think that really hit home for me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, Dr. Miller said that the experience of having her\nbaby was \u201creally eye-opening \u2013 all the way from being pregnant to everything\nthat comes after, because as an obstetrician, we really don\u2019t do much helping\nmoms with breastfeeding or taking care of their babies. It\u2019s really just about\neverything up to labor and delivery.  I\nfeel like I can really connect with my patients now \u2013 post-partum as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI definitely think I can relate to my patients more,\u201d Dr. Hirai said about the experience of being pregnant. \u201cI can now say that I\u2019ve lived through the different changes that people go through when they\u2019re pregnant.\u00a0 I have more empathy.”\u00a0 She added that she thinks that when her patients saw her pregnant they listened to her advice a little more than they did previously, \u201clike they think \u2018she knows what she\u2019s talking about because she\u2019s going through the same thing I am.\u2019\u201d

\"\"Dr. Cori-Ann Hirai with baby Camila Komo. Cori-Ann Hirai photo. <\/em>

Both Dr. Nagamine and Dr. Hirai mentioned how honored they were to be asked to serve as their colleagues\u2019 obstetrician.\u00a0 Dr. Nagamine, who had trained with Dr. Hirai and described their relationship as \u201creally close,\u201d said, \u201cIt was definitely an honor when she was pregnant and told me that she was going to come to see me. I always looked up to her as a mentor and a friend.\u00a0 I know what a great physician she is and I wanted to live up to that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a privilege that your own colleague thinks highly enough of you that she wants you to care for her during this very important part of her life,\u201d said Dr. Hirai about having Dr. Miller choose her as her obstetrician. This was especially true in her case, she said, because Dr. Miller \u201cknows more\u201d than she does, \u201cand it was her first baby too!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Hirai speaks about her choice to have a colleague care for her in her pregnancy as being a natural one, \u201cWho better than one of your colleagues who you practice with day to day? You\u2019ve seen how they practice and you can trust them and know they\u2019re providing really good care.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, Dr. Miller said, \u201cJust seeing the medical care\nfrom someone you work with kind of verifies how I treat a patient, like how we\nwork as a team.\u201d  She said it helped her\nsee better \u201chow all the components fit together.\u201d  She added that she chose Dr. Hirai \u201cfor many\nreasons. I saw her dedication to her patients. She\u2019d always come in any hour of\nthe night to take care of them. Also, just her bedside manner and attention to\ndetail.  She\u2019s very dedicated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These doctors also talked about the added benefit of not needing to educate an OB\/GYN doctor who is having a baby under their care.\u00a0\u00a0 As Dr. Hirai said, \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of education that goes on\u201d when one OB\/GYN doctor is caring for another. Usually, the work of an obstetrician involves letting patients know what to expect and what exactly is happening in their bodies, but as her patient, Dr. Miller \u201ccould answer all her questions herself.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Likewise, of her appointments with Dr. Hirai, Dr. Nagamine\nsaid, \u201cI think a lot of our visits during the pregnancy were a little informal\nbecause obviously she knows a lot. It was nice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was really great for me,\u201d Dr. Miller said of the experience of having Dr. Hirai care for her. \u201cI also think it was really great for my husband because he had a lot of trust in [Dr. Hirai].\u201d  When Dr. Miller was having her c-section, people asked her if he was alright “and he said yes, because he knew everyone there. We had just had a barbeque with everyone there the day before!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All around, Dr. Miller said, \u201cHaving the medical\nperspective of having to care for pregnancies, there wasn\u2019t a lot of\nsurprises.\u201d                <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of forming lasting relationships \u2013 both with each other and their patients \u2013 figured prominently in their conversations about what they do as doctors.  \u201cI really like the continuity of care,\u201d Dr. Hirai said. \u201cThis field is one of the few in medicine in which you can see patients from when they are teenagers all the way into their elderly ages. You can form long-lasting relationships with patients over the course of time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All three physicians also expressed that a career in OB\/GYN allowed them to share in a happy time in their patients\u2019 lives. \u201cHaving a baby is one of the few times when you are happy to be in the hospital,\u201d Dr. Hirai said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really fun to deliver babies,\u201d Dr. Nagamine said. \u201cI\nmean you\u2019re not just seeing patients because there\u2019s something wrong with\nthem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listening to these doctors brings to light the dedication and the professionalism of UHP\u2019s OB\/G Department.\u00a0\u00a0 We have good reason to be proud of them, and to know that Hawaii is lucky to have them.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur practice is pretty far-reaching,\u201d said Dr. Nagamine.\n\u201cWe have our faculty practice, but then we also have a number of contracts with\nfederally-funded centers that are dispersed throughout the island of Oahu, and\nthere are a lot of patients who go to those centers and they deliver with us\u201d.\nThese patients would probably be underserved if not for these centers and our\ndoctors, she said.  \u201cThat is a big reason\nwhy I joined [UHP] \u2013 because it allowed me to fulfill that goal of mine to\nserve underserved patients.  I think UHP\ndoes a really good job of reaching out to them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 26, 2020 — OB\/GYN doctors set an example of community by taking care of each other during their pregnancies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":13307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/uhphawaii.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/IMG_2645-1-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13157"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13314,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13157\/revisions\/13314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uhphawaii.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}