EP 14: Wisdom from The Delivery Room

Interview with David Weinstein / Legendary Baby Doctor – At Nearly 11,000 Births

HOSTED BY PAUL SULLIVAN

David Weinstein has delivered nearly 11,000 babies in the New York area—most at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut. He’s one of the all-time greats. Stories of his grace and coolness under pressure are legion. High-risk pregnancies? No problem. Record deliveries in a day? 12 – out of 600 a year for him and his partner in their prime. Time with his own family? Turns out he had a streak of delivering most of his babies while his kids were asleep. Ahead of Mother’s Day, Dr. Weinstein shared some of his extraordinary experiences and talked about some of the lessons he’s learned after bringing so many babies into the world. Listen to his wisdom on parenting from the very start.

---

Get our free newsletter covering all things fatherhood delivered straight to your inbox: https://thecompanyofdads.com/thedad/

Transcript

00;00;04;14 - 00;00;26;05
Paul Sullivan
I'm Paul Sullivan, your host on the Company of Dads podcast, where we explore the sweet, sublime, strange and silly aspects of being a dad in a world where men often feel they have to hide, or at least not talk about their parenting role. I know this from firsthand experience as a dad to my three girls, three dogs, three cats, and somewhat remarkably, three fish who are still alive.

00;00;26;07 - 00;00;43;21
Paul Sullivan
I did this all while managing my career and striving to be an above average husband. One thing I know for sure about being a dad is it's not a normal role. You're not doing what dads have traditionally done. Going to work and leaving the parenting to mom or someone else. Nor are you always welcome into the world where moms are the primary caregivers.

00;00;43;23 - 00;01;13;23
Paul Sullivan
Here at the Company of dads. Our goal is to shake all that off and focus on what really matters family, friendship, finance, and fun. Today, my guest, Doctor David Weinstein, who has delivered nearly 11,000 babies in the greater New York City area, and most of them, including my three daughters at Stanford Hospital, right here in Connecticut. David is one of the all time great doctors, and it seems like I'm always running into someone whose life he is impacted.

00;01;13;25 - 00;01;37;08
Paul Sullivan
Stories of his grace and coolness under pressure are legend, so legendary that he decided to dedicate an extra chapter in my first book, clutch, to David and people like him who operate so well under pressure. Ahead of Mother's Day, I asked him to come on the Company of Dads podcast to share some of his extraordinary experiences and stories, and talk about some of the lessons learned after bringing so many babies into the world.

00;01;37;10 - 00;01;38;26
Paul Sullivan
David, welcome.

00;01;38;29 - 00;01;41;18
David Weinstein
Thank you Paul. It's great to see you again.

00;01;41;20 - 00;01;50;20
Paul Sullivan
I let's start off with the basic question how, of all the different specialties you could have selected. How did you choose to become an ObGyn?

00;01;50;22 - 00;02;19;13
David Weinstein
Well, I said I should tell you, and I thought you might have known this, but both my dad and my brother are pediatricians, and my uncle and cousin are obstetricians. So, when I was in medical school, I wasn't quite sure whether I should follow my dad and my brother's, lead or my uncle and cousins. But, in fact, I really loved Madison, and I wanted to be a cardiologist.

00;02;19;15 - 00;02;44;08
David Weinstein
And I did my internship, actually, in New York at Mount Sinai Hospital. And in those days, we had to do a, an internship before our residency. And, I probably could read an EKG as well as any of the cardiologists. But back in those days, I must tell you, we didn't have all the advances that we have today, such as stents and pacemakers.

00;02;44;11 - 00;03;08;01
David Weinstein
And, sadly, I would leave on Friday to have the weekend with my family. Come back on Monday, and some of my patients wouldn't be there. So I found that, it was a very sad, experience. And one of my classmates, who was a year ahead of me, was on the go and service and convinced me to switch to, ObGyn.

00;03;08;08 - 00;03;11;01
David Weinstein
And that's how I became an obstetrician.

00;03;11;04 - 00;03;20;21
Paul Sullivan
You know, over the years, I've met your brother, Richard as well. Did you guys ever think of, like, going into the business together? Like, you know, Weinstein brothers and.

00;03;20;23 - 00;03;38;14
David Weinstein
Well, he wasn't. He's, we both went to medical school in Chicago, and he did his residency there. But I was anxious to get back to the East Coast, so, we never really thought of, of doing that. Sadly. And my dad was a pediatrician in new Jersey. Yeah.

00;03;38;16 - 00;03;51;09
Paul Sullivan
When you started out, I mean, did you ever imagine that you'd be in a place where, you know, nearly 11,000 people on this planet can say that you you literally had a hand in starting their life?

00;03;51;11 - 00;04;16;16
David Weinstein
No. I honestly never thought of the numbers. And and as you know, it's been, a little over 50 years of delivering babies. And, it it just seems to. I enjoyed it so much, I can't stop doing it. And, and and it just we we we enjoyed what we did so much. It didn't matter if we worked all night.

00;04;16;16 - 00;04;22;09
David Weinstein
If we were two nights. We just did it. Very different from the young people today.

00;04;22;11 - 00;04;34;18
Paul Sullivan
Well, I'm sure you know, if I were to ask you, like, who is baby? You know, 4763, that would be hard to remember, but what was it like to deliver your your first baby? Like, when was it, you know, where was it? What were the parents like?

00;04;34;19 - 00;04;58;16
David Weinstein
I was a medical student in Chicago. My brother at that time was a resident in pediatrics, and there was a hospital in Chicago called the Cook County Hospital. It's a large public hospital. And, it boasted that it did over 12,000 deliveries a year. So just about every medical student in Chicago wanted to do a rotation there.

00;04;58;16 - 00;05;23;29
David Weinstein
And I was fortunate to get my rotation there. And my professor from northwestern was a twin, and he was just marvelous. So as my first day at the cooks and, they had a huge, OB floor and it was a long hallway. I was immediately introduced to one of the residents there and a nurse, and they said, oh, we have a delivery for you.

00;05;24;02 - 00;05;38;18
David Weinstein
And I said, well, I've never done a delivery. Don't worry, we'll help you. So they bring me down, and this this woman is having her sixth baby and of course, husbands weren't allowed in the rooms in those days. And they said, now, at least.

00;05;38;19 - 00;05;44;08
Paul Sullivan
I gave you an experience, mother, so they. She could probably have coached you along, too. This is number six at all.

00;05;44;10 - 00;06;09;11
David Weinstein
I was a bystander, but I did deliver the baby. And I tell everyone this story because the baby, who was almost 14 pounds. Oh my God. And it was my first experience delivering a baby. And she did it essentially by herself. I mean, I was there, but I don't know if I remember what I did. And I had a nurse, the resident, and had left and I said, this is fantastic.

00;06;09;13 - 00;06;16;03
David Weinstein
And it helped me choose a career. You know, eventually or.

00;06;16;03 - 00;06;25;24
Paul Sullivan
I'm just saying, good thing, you know, people don't know this, but, you know, when you're an undergraduate, Yale, you played football. So you, you know, a 14 pound baby, you know, you had the hands to to get that kid.

00;06;25;27 - 00;06;30;14
David Weinstein
You know, I was a good receiver as well, you know?

00;06;30;16 - 00;06;40;26
Paul Sullivan
Boy, how many parents, you know? You know, over the years. Yeah. How many parents have wanted to know the the gender, you know, whether they're having a boy or a girl?

00;06;40;29 - 00;07;06;12
David Weinstein
Well, memory for years and years and years, we had no way of of telling. It wasn't until ultrasound began which actually started up in New Haven at Yale, that we had the ability to actually see the gender. And now today, we have a blood test that we can do very early in the pregnancy that tells us both the gender of the baby and the chromosomes of the baby.

00;07;06;14 - 00;07;16;00
David Weinstein
So I think today I would say more than 70% of parents, want to know.

00;07;16;06 - 00;07;25;03
Paul Sullivan
When you think, you know, I feel like you have four kids of your own, you know, daughter and and three sons. Who'd you trust to deliver them?

00;07;25;05 - 00;07;49;17
David Weinstein
Well, my first, I was, as I say, I was an intern at Mount Sinai and, primarily medicine. And, my wife said to me, is there any chance that I could be pregnant? And I said, no, of course not. I said, well, let's go to the doctors. So the one of the, great obstetricians at Mount Sinai called me and said, would you mind seeing my wife?

00;07;49;18 - 00;08;09;25
David Weinstein
I said, I understand you're in the medicine department. And I said, that's correct. He said, that's good, because your wife is 14 weeks pregnant. And so it didn't deter me. But anyway, we had our first child at Mount Sinai, and it was a wonderful experience. Dads could not be in the delivery room.

00;08;09;29 - 00;08;14;09
Paul Sullivan
I was gone, but what about you? Did you get a special dispensation to be in there? No.

00;08;14;12 - 00;08;33;24
David Weinstein
It wasn't till I switched down to Cornell, where I did my residency. Now, as an OB resident, they let me come in with the boys. So that was and again, you know, knowing the obstetricians there, I, had the advantage of selecting somebody, that was exceptional. But there were so many good obstetricians.

00;08;33;26 - 00;08;44;18
Paul Sullivan
What was it like, like when they let you in when you're at Cornell, while what was it like to be, you know, the dad in the delivery room who also happened to be a doctor who who did that for a living.

00;08;44;21 - 00;09;10;06
David Weinstein
For a fortunately, everything went very well. And in those days there were rarely did anybody have medication. It was all natural. And so that, the good news was that the labors were very short because we didn't have epidurals, we didn't have spinal. We rarely medicated people. So they really peop patients really cruised. And the babies were much smaller than they are today.

00;09;10;09 - 00;09;22;22
David Weinstein
So it was a vast experience. And, you know, you're you're watching your child come out. It's so it's still pretty marvelous and overwhelming to see the little thing.

00;09;22;25 - 00;09;28;26
Paul Sullivan
But like, were you like, you know, chit chatting and talking shop with the other doctors while while Paula was in labor?

00;09;29;03 - 00;09;41;20
David Weinstein
Well, no, I was not. The only thing I was doing. I was looking at that fetal monitor, making sure everything was okay. So I, I was eyeing that throughout the labor.

00;09;41;23 - 00;10;02;07
Paul Sullivan
You know, fast forward a bit, but just a bit more about, you know, you have what you have, for five grandkids now. Yeah. Five grand and soon to be six. What's happened? Like, you know, it's one thing to see your own children be born, but now you've seen your children have children. How has that been as an experience?

00;10;02;07 - 00;10;06;02
Paul Sullivan
Not not, you know, obviously as a grandfather, but but as as an obstetrician as well.

00;10;06;02 - 00;10;31;05
David Weinstein
Well, I was only present for one of one of the births, and, my daughter had two of her sons in Italy, but the last they happened to be in the States, and they had, Theodore at Stanford. So I was I was there and, it was thrilling. It was really hard to, to see your your grandsons.

00;10;31;05 - 00;10;44;03
David Weinstein
You know, I think that there's a difference between, the way you look at your children and your grandchildren. Your grandchildren is. It's all pleasure. I don't worry so much about the grandchildren. I just enjoy this one.

00;10;44;06 - 00;10;55;11
Paul Sullivan
So is it, you know, nearly 50 years, nearly 11,000 babies. You pretty much seen everything. What counts as a challenging day of of work for you?

00;10;55;13 - 00;11;13;27
David Weinstein
I the office is is always, Wonderful. You get to see patients you've seen for many, many years. I still think, OB is the most challenging part of our day. I think now that.

00;11;14;00 - 00;11;18;16
Paul Sullivan
What? Why? Because. Because parents are nervous. Because it's free to human life. And why is it much.

00;11;18;21 - 00;11;44;06
David Weinstein
Much older and I think risk to women as they get older are much more severe. And we're seeing that if you look at the data in the United States, we're seeing a lot of women now in their 40s. We recently had a woman 50 delivering. And, their cardiovascular risks are significant. So we're seeing a lot of complications, throughout the United States.

00;11;44;09 - 00;11;54;12
David Weinstein
So, I think what's changed, it is that obstetrics has become much more complicated because of the age, difference now in women.

00;11;54;14 - 00;11;55;02
Paul Sullivan
Yep.

00;11;55;04 - 00;12;02;15
David Weinstein
And it and, it requires a lot of attention. And, no question about it.

00;12;02;17 - 00;12;19;22
Paul Sullivan
Yeah. I talked to one of your your moms, not my wife at a different one of your moms. And she has this memory of you delivering nine babies on the day that you delivered her. Her daughter, her third child was that, you know, common. Was that your your record in one day? How what's the ebb and.

00;12;19;22 - 00;12;21;09
David Weinstein
Flow of the 12?

00;12;21;11 - 00;12;22;10
Paul Sullivan
What's that?

00;12;22;12 - 00;12;23;08
David Weinstein
12.

00;12;23;10 - 00;12;25;20
Paul Sullivan
12 was your record? 12. And one day.

00;12;25;22 - 00;12;31;01
David Weinstein
Thinking about this and I remember that the one day I had 12 deliveries. Yeah.

00;12;31;03 - 00;12;32;21
Paul Sullivan
Oh my gosh. So I took.

00;12;32;24 - 00;12;55;04
David Weinstein
Their only I had we were my partner and I were doing $600 a year. And so we we worked it every other night, every other weekend. And if he went away on vacation then I would work that week too. So and but so we, we did a lot of deliveries and but I didn't it didn't seem to bother anybody.

00;12;55;04 - 00;12;59;08
David Weinstein
You know, we just enjoyed it. We really did. And,

00;12;59;10 - 00;13;05;03
Paul Sullivan
Did did you get, like, a reserve spot in, in the nursery, like Weinstein babies go here?

00;13;05;06 - 00;13;11;17
David Weinstein
I didn't even get a parking space. And you get getting. Wow.

00;13;11;20 - 00;13;17;10
Paul Sullivan
When you. The day you delivered, 12 babies were there. Were there multiples, involved? Twins, triplets.

00;13;17;13 - 00;13;46;08
David Weinstein
I think it was just a single ten. So although I have done the I think the the what? I've done quads, but not as an attending as a resident. And then I had triplets. Yeah. And in fact the quads were delivered vaginally. Holy cow. Yeah. But the very famous doctor down at Cornell. Wow. And I was helping him and we did these kids all badly commands you fact.

00;13;46;10 - 00;14;00;03
Paul Sullivan
When you think of those, you know, record days, you know, ten, 11, 12, 12 babies and and obviously there's someone you, you know, 1 or 2, how would you prepare yourself for the day not knowing. And I deliver zero babies when I deliver five babies. Am I going to you know.

00;14;00;05 - 00;14;21;22
David Weinstein
You know, if you if you're on core, you're you just you just do it, you know, you don't think about it. And, I can't tell you I've ever prepared for those days. I just say that's I'm on, and I. Whatever happens, I'm gone. I'll be there, I'll be doing it. And, we didn't think about it. It was automatic.

00;14;21;24 - 00;14;45;22
David Weinstein
It was just. Now, you have to remember, in our residencies when I was an intern, I worked every other night, every other weekend. So on a weekend I would come in Saturday around 730 in the morning, I wouldn't go home till Monday at five and I couldn't work. Now that doesn't happen anymore in hospitals. They've stopped there, but we had crazy hours.

00;14;45;22 - 00;14;50;17
David Weinstein
I mean, but it didn't bother us. We were young, you know.

00;14;50;19 - 00;15;07;19
Paul Sullivan
I have this memory. I mean, you have such a wealth of knowledge and expertise. I have the memory that, you know, when our first daughter was born, we're sitting in the hospital. We're there for 23, 24 hours, and you'd come in and out, you check. How's everyone doing? Very friendly. And then also. And you said, okay, we're going to go right now and.

00;15;07;20 - 00;15;26;02
Paul Sullivan
Okay. Yeah. You know, and it's only after our oldest daughter was delivered, you tell us that there's this meconium, and it's only went from, Well, let's wait and see to the baby's coming out right now. And so you went from just, you know, normal day check on your patients. Surely you're checking on other people besides me and my wife.

00;15;26;05 - 00;15;37;01
Paul Sullivan
How do you ramp that? I mean that to me. That's why I wrote about you in my first book. That's the definition of. Of clutch being so great under pressure. What prepared you for that? Was it years and years of doing it or you just had a sensor?

00;15;37;06 - 00;16;00;20
David Weinstein
I think it's both. Yeah. I think there's no question, years of doing it. But I also think when you love something and just being prepared, I think and you know, and I learned a very important lesson from a very wise man. And he said, never skip a step, just, oh, if you think of something, do it.

00;16;00;22 - 00;16;23;11
David Weinstein
And I've always told the young residents that same message. And I think that prepares you for, emergencies or you're you're you're there. You just know what to do. You know, you're always thinking, what's going on? How do I deal with this? It's like everything else, you know? You're great at what you do. Hello?

00;16;23;14 - 00;16;46;28
Paul Sullivan
Well, I say this, thinking, like, you know, your oldest son is my college roommate. Best man at my wedding, you know, 30 plus years. And I remember freshman year, I tell you what your dad do say. Always obstetrician. Oh, that's cool. And, you know, people don't know this, but Josh. Very, very funny. And he had this joke that you would be at the pool, you know, it's kind of disappear, get in your car.

00;16;46;28 - 00;17;03;22
Paul Sullivan
You don't live very far from hospital. Get in your car, deliver, baby, come back. And I said, oh, that's not true. And then, of course, over the years, as I got to know you, that is true. That really is kind of what happens that you literally hop up from the pool, put on your bow tie, get in your car, drive it as a zip down to within an hour.

00;17;03;22 - 00;17;18;25
Paul Sullivan
You're back. It's remarkable. Very efficient. But, you know, honestly, did you ever. It was your point. Were you ever got tired of your own family time being interrupted with, oh, my God, another baby? I like, could we just get three done all at once? I don't have to keep going back and forth.

00;17;18;26 - 00;17;51;23
David Weinstein
I was thinking about that, and in the early years it seemed that most of my deliveries were at night. So I would leave at midnight and I'd either come back at three, or if I had to go back and I'd be home at 630. When the kids were getting up for breakfast, they had no clue that I had ever left, and so they didn't realize that I was gone most of the nights, and it just seemed like, we had plenty of time together because most of my work was seemed to occur in the evenings.

00;17;51;26 - 00;17;52;28
David Weinstein
Yeah, yeah.

00;17;53;01 - 00;18;05;18
Paul Sullivan
What do you think about, you know, things that happen that the average person wouldn't know about in the delivery room, like, what are the most difficult things that that happen in that delivery room? As you know, you waiting for the baby?

00;18;05;18 - 00;18;31;07
David Weinstein
I think, for, for most of us is when we see signs of some distress in the baby. And now we have to make a decision. How much time do we have to deliver this baby? So the heart, it may be the heart rate. It may be meconium. There may be other things that we're seeing that alerts us.

00;18;31;10 - 00;18;58;25
David Weinstein
And so I think that that creates the, the, the biggest anxiety for doctors and nurses and, and, fortunately, we have I've always had marvelous nurses, marvelous, departments and, and the nurses at Stanford over the years have been outstanding. But, I would say we probably have one of the best obstetrical nursing programs in the country.

00;18;58;28 - 00;19;21;20
David Weinstein
So when I think those sudden and tough soon to be an emergent problem is what is the most stressful for most obstetricians, and what do we now? What do we do? Do we do, a, operative delivery or do we do a C-section? What's the best and safest way to deliver the baby? And I think that's what most of you.

00;19;21;20 - 00;19;32;29
Paul Sullivan
Know, seeing all that, surely, you know. So many babies on a regular basis. You know what scares you the most? And how do you manage? You know, when you get scared?

00;19;33;01 - 00;20;11;29
David Weinstein
I think today, we're we're seeing a lot of more complicated, what we call placental problems. So things like what we call placenta previa, these are very low, poorly implanted, placentas or, other kinds of abnormalities of class mentation. And these create great, great risk for hemorrhage. So I think our greatest fear today is, either intraoperative hemorrhage or postpartum hemorrhage, because that's that's can be a,

00;20;12;02 - 00;20;13;10
Paul Sullivan
Is that a life threatening.

00;20;13;11 - 00;20;36;29
David Weinstein
A life threatening, problem? Absolutely. No question about it. So the obstetrical part is less serious than the, classification problems. And so, you know, fortunately, we have a department that's prepared for it, but still, it's always, always, very, very, very nerve wracking.

00;20;37;02 - 00;20;45;23
Paul Sullivan
This is a little off topic, but I'm just curious, why is it happening more today? Is it happening because people are having children older or what? What's causing it to happen more today?

00;20;45;25 - 00;21;15;13
David Weinstein
I'm not 100% sure. I think that's part of it. I think age is playing a role. I think that we're seeing in vitro fertilization. I think you get more placental problems with the in vitro fertilization. I think we're seeing patients who have serious hypertension. So we're seeing a lot more complications related to that. It's just so much, more complicated, I think, today, because of age.

00;21;15;15 - 00;21;42;26
Paul Sullivan
So let's pivot a bit because, it is the Company of Dallas podcast. And I know from having been in your office many times that my own wife with, you know, my own kids that good part of your job is also playing therapist and also playing sort of, you know, counselor to these families when when you think about the difference between, you know, a first time dad and an experienced dad who's doing the dad job.

00;21;42;26 - 00;21;49;00
Paul Sullivan
Well, what stands out? What are some of the distinctions, between the rookie and the pro?

00;21;49;02 - 00;22;11;09
David Weinstein
I think that first time dad is very, very frightened and nervous and, not only because, he doesn't know what to do with the new baby, but I think also because he's concerned about his wife and her health and, her aches and pains and, you know, all of a sudden she gets a pain. Oh, my God, is that a contraction?

00;22;11;09 - 00;22;12;28
David Weinstein
You know, what does this mean?

00;22;12;28 - 00;22;17;29
Paul Sullivan
Yeah. And and so the what about the experience, dad? What makes him the pro?

00;22;18;02 - 00;22;32;28
David Weinstein
He's been through it. How you it I was there I know it's going on. I think it's just that it's like everything else the, you know, the more experience you have, I think the more comfortable you. If you feel. Yeah.

00;22;33;01 - 00;22;48;19
Paul Sullivan
But be honest face when you see like a father who just knows what it's going to take to be, a good dad and a good husband, a partner. Are there qualities that that that stand out or qualities that you know are going to make that that person a a good father?

00;22;48;24 - 00;23;09;15
David Weinstein
I don't know if I can really tell when I need somebody for the first time, because remember, 90% of the time the dads are not coming to their appointment. So I see them usually on their first first appointment or when they do an ultrasound and then, labor and delivery. So I'm not sure I really can answer that question.

00;23;09;15 - 00;23;10;25
David Weinstein
You probably are better.

00;23;10;27 - 00;23;16;08
Paul Sullivan
Well, I'm wondering, so do I get extra points? Because I think at least for the first two, I attended all the appointments.

00;23;16;16 - 00;23;18;04
David Weinstein
Are you kidding?

00;23;18;07 - 00;23;23;27
Paul Sullivan
The third one, I probably missed a few appointments, but but but that was. That's because I was experienced. I was a pro dad at that point.

00;23;23;29 - 00;23;51;24
David Weinstein
Yeah. That's right. I think it's harder today, I think today. And you have both parents working, so I think that makes it more complicated. You know, when in the old days, most women were home and and the dads were doing the working. So it was a different dynamic. I think, I have to believe that with both working dads and working moms, it's a lot more difficult.

00;23;51;26 - 00;24;02;03
David Weinstein
And I think that, I think both are sharing in that, in that, burden of raising children. I think they probably do it better, too.

00;24;02;03 - 00;24;13;08
Paul Sullivan
I mean, along those lines and, you know, have you seen, you know, have you seen big changes in, you know, moms and like, what it's like to be a mom over your nearly 11,000 babies for God?

00;24;13;08 - 00;24;41;05
David Weinstein
I think it's hard to they just about every one of our patients is working there. So I mean to balance work and kids and husbands and family and everything else. I, I it's it's remarkable that women do it so well. They really do it seamlessly. It seems to me, I think much better than men. I have to tell you.

00;24;41;08 - 00;24;56;24
David Weinstein
So there's no question except for you. Pull up. There's no question in my mind. And. And they just don't complain, you know, and, pretty remarkable. Yeah. Know. Pretty terrific.

00;24;56;27 - 00;25;25;11
Paul Sullivan
Let's say I'm just kind of spitballing here. If nearly 11,000 babies sort of allowing for some, you know, multiple births or families like mine where we've had, you know, three kids, say you've, you know, seven, 8000 families, you know, is there things that stand out from those families that have, you know, been able to succeed and, and stay a really good, cohesive family and versus those families who might have struggled or are there any any that stand out there?

00;25;25;14 - 00;25;51;21
David Weinstein
I think I can yeah. I really, I'm not sure I can answer that, that, because I don't interact with the fathers or the families. I'm really 99%, just interacting with mom. So she comes back for her yearly exams. So I don't really get the sense of the whole family. It's a great question. I think I should ask my brother's a pediatrician.

00;25;51;21 - 00;26;12;20
David Weinstein
I think he probably could answer that question better, as he probably has more of the dynamics of the family than I do. I'm at my I'm very near side because I'm just looking at the mom, you know, and she'll come in for annual exam things of this sort. I don't get the whole sense of what's going on with the family at that time.

00;26;12;23 - 00;26;27;01
Paul Sullivan
I have this great memory with each of my daughters. You would. And we know each other well, but we each had argued you'd come in, he'd say, you know, give me the baby. You'd hold the baby. Look, the baby over, like, okay, baby looks fine. And then he'd hand the baby back and you'd be off to your next delivery.

00;26;27;01 - 00;26;30;06
Paul Sullivan
I mean, you're, you know, a master at this.

00;26;30;08 - 00;26;56;16
David Weinstein
It's nice of you to say thank you. I think medicine has changed today. And I think it's. It's sad what I see is going on. We're becoming very institutionalized. As you know, at our hospital, we have about 750 doctors. I would say at least 650 work for the hospital. And I think that change is, in private practice.

00;26;56;16 - 00;27;24;12
David Weinstein
If I get a call from a patient, I will return that call always the same day when you have these large institutional practices, often those calls get neglected to maybe a two days later or three days later. And that sends me because I, I, I think that responsibility that physician is to to be in touch with their patient and in a timely fashion.

00;27;24;12 - 00;27;27;28
David Weinstein
I don't see that happening today. Sadly.

00;27;28;01 - 00;27;47;29
Paul Sullivan
I have to say. You are. But, you know, you have your gatekeepers. You have your your nurses and the people to answer the phone for you. And I have such recollection, you know, the times when my wife should be, you know, worried about something, concerned about something. And she'd call and they'd say, okay, yeah, we'll, we'll we'll give Doctor Weinstein the message, I'll call you right back.

00;27;48;01 - 00;28;03;06
Paul Sullivan
And she would be, you know, beside herself or whatever it is, I'll call. And I would always call and I'd put on this voice and say, hello, this is Paul Sullivan calling. I need to speak to David Weinstein right now. And they would hear, like, the urgency the male voice and they one second and you'd pick up the funny thing.

00;28;03;06 - 00;28;18;13
Paul Sullivan
What do you what do you need? Like what? Why are you calling? And I think Laura has a question that was always my secret to to get through to you. So I worked with that. Any last thoughts? It's been a lot of fun. Any last thoughts on on what we should know from all your knowledge.

00;28;18;16 - 00;28;20;26
David Weinstein
I've been a very lucky person.

00;28;20;29 - 00;28;24;24
Paul Sullivan
David Weinstein, thank you very much for being my guest on the Company of Dad's podcast.