A local woman missing- Mary Kubica

What his patients like about Dr. Feingold is that he’s a solo
practitioner. He’s not part of a big group. There’s comfort in that.
When his patients deliver, they know just exactly what they’ll get.
The other groups have upward of ten obstetricians on staff. When it
comes to delivery, you might get one you like. You might get one you
don’t like. You might get one you’ve never seen before. That
prospect worries many. That’s why they settle for a no-nonsense
man like Dr. Feingold. With him there are few, if any, unknowns. He’s
been doing this for decades.
The first thing Dr. Feingold says to her is, “The better you push,
the sooner you’ll be done.” That’s not necessarily true. It’s also
patronizing. That the baby doesn’t move despite Shelby’s pushing
isn’t her fault.
“I can’t do it,” Shelby cries out. The sweat drips from her hairline. It
rolls down her cheek. “Get this baby out of me,” she screams.
Jason, beside me, is incensed.
I pull Dr. Feingold aside and suggest that Shelby can’t do this, that
she’s had enough. Shelby doesn’t have any real qualms in having a
cesarean. It’s not her first choice. But she’s fine having one if
necessary. And to me, taking her exhaustion into account, the
prolonged labor, the fact that things have stalled, it seems
necessary. Prudent even.
Dr. Feingold is dismissive of my concerns. “I’m the doctor,” he
reminds me, loud enough that everyone in the room can hear. He
glares at me as he says it. “I’ve been in practice for thirty-odd years.
Why don’t you let me decide how this is going to go, unless you have
some medical degree that I don’t know about.”
He walks away from me. He returns to Shelby. “Besides,” he tells
her, as if he was talking to her all along, “a C-section will leave you
with an ugly scar, and no one wants that.”
A healthy baby. That was Shelby’s only request when we
discussed her birth plan.
Instead of a C-section, Dr. Feingold decides to use forceps to help
get the baby out. Very few doctors use them anymore, mostly only
old-school ones like Dr. Feingold. The use of forceps poses a
potential risk. Dr. Feingold doesn’t discuss these risks with Shelby or