Dr. Ashlee Beth Bergin, MD

I chose Dr. Bergin for my backup OB (primary care provided by a well-qualified CNM) out of a solid lineup of OBs in her practice. I did so on the basis of my interactions with her during a standard prenatal visit or two. She was forthright with information and clear in her recommendations, and I respected and liked her very much. The tone of our interactions changed drastically when I was actually in the hospital in labor. When we disagreed (politely and calmly) about following her recommendation for a c-section, instead of respecting my ability to collaborate with her about my care, she began to be manipulative and abusive, at times stooping to lies to get me to change my mind. Let me be clear: all other people involved in my care, including the Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist at the hospital, agreed that allowing labor to continue was an appropriate and reasonable choice; no one was in any particular danger. At one point, she even went so far as to misrepresent the situation… to uninvolved hospital staff, misusing their positions in the effort to get me to follow her recommendation. She had the hospital chaplain call my husband out of my room to twist his arm about the oh-so-dangerous choices we were making. Didn't we understand? Didn't we love our baby? At the same time--when she had removed my support person from the room--she had a social worker confront me with the same story: that I was being desperately reckless. Yet two minutes of conversation with me about the actual situation was enough to resolve her fears and the social worker left my room after apologizing to me. When I confronted Dr. Bergin about her transparent machinations, she conducted herself in such an unprofessional manner that the nurse actually insisted she remove herself from my room. There was quite the hullabaloo after that, and lo and behold someone else from the practice took over the case. Thank goodness.