Our pregnancy and delivery was handled by Dr Sashikala Hande and I have no words to describe her dedication, professionalism and expertise. This was in 2007. Somebody had written a negative article about Dr Sashikale Hande and I felt that the least I could do was to write our great experience with Dr Hande; though I very well know that there would be by now hundreds who would write similar comments. We chanced upon Dr Sashikale Hande quite accidentally.
Cradle was also I guess started in that year and not well known. Well we used to go to a famous hospital in the south and we used to consult a famous Dr there. This particular Dr had helped one of our neighbors during their complicated pregnancy and they vouched for this particular Dr. Well our first pregnancy had to be aborted because of chicken pox in the very early stage of pregnancy itself. Our first Dr told that we could take the abortion pill (Mifepristone and Misoprostol, can’t remember the exact brand name) since it is early period and that it would go off by itself. I searched the entire net and could not find much side effects or to word it correctly much risks with this; This was actually less riskier than the D&C procedures when I checked in the internet; Well we were in for a horror; it was like a delivery only worse, nobody was with us there, and we were at home; Well not to relive it, I feel it is best done in a hospital; But that was not all.
This did not fully flush out the remains even after a week; we went to the same hospital in emergency; There was another Dr there and she was shocked that our Dr had not even prescribed a follow up scan. I personally believe now that this is in excusable. Well then they manually removed it and it was fine. But the Dr told us that if we had not come in, it would have caused serious infection in the womb and problems. Well then for the next pregnancy we went to the same hospital and the same Dr. Looking back I guess wonder why we went back to the same Dr. But back then we did not know about anybody else. Well this time everything went fine. But during one routine there were indication of choroid plexus cysts; and this Dr said that we will have to do an abortion again.; One thing I can tell is that our Dr was very busy, she never had time to talk to us properly or tell us in detail, no warmth; and the cold way in which she advised us again abortion was the last straw; I checked in the internet and there was not much information at that time regarding this; i.e. how common it was; now I guess there are more articles; but I found one article or blog by a renowned Dr who had seen a lot of this and had written how overrated this was, especially in the absence of any other markers; We resolved that we will not go to that Dr again nor step into that hospital again. And then went to Dr Sashikale Hande as it was near our house at that time; Of all the things she listened to us, told us not to worry, told the risk is very less, told that she worked in a hospital called Cradle; we went there, liked it, and yes expensive it was. At that time they were still setting up the insurance with companies and it was still open whether we will get insurance or not; But we went to the scan there, and it was a world of difference; we felt cared, the scanning Dr there was very understanding, talked to us and reassured us. We resolved that we will go there in Cradle what ever be the cost. The people there were simply great, especially the nurses there. Well we had a false labor and we got admitted in Cradle; called up Dr Sashikale during midnight; she came by the time we reached hospital and examined and told us that she will come in the morning; By morning it was evident that it was false labor; the staff told us that we could leave and come back later - they were not even planning to bill us for the night; but we chose to stay one more day. Well the actual pain happened after some days. This time we waited till the pain became rhythmical, till it reached ten minute cycle, and again it was 2 am when we reached the hospital and again Dr Sashikala came; she again came in the morning during for the delivery; well the nurses too were great. Few things our experience taught us is that if the Dr treats you like a commodity, don’t explain much to you, don’t treat you humanely then it is probably a sign that the Dr is too busy for you. Internet is surely a source of information; but make sure that you look for trust worthy sites like MayoClinic and do your research pretty well. You cant become a Dr just by looking up the internet; Also we recently visited Cradle and it seems more crowded now; I hope they cope with that or maybe expand to Bangalore North, since we are now shifted there and I see no such hospital in the North :) Another thing we noted is that our first Dr from that famous hospital in Bangalore south, is consulting there in Cradle now !. I hope this post helps many.