Rodke Gae MD

Dr. Rodke delivered my son by cesarean section, 27 years ago and had the audacity to tell me that I'd "better not get pregnant again unless I lose 100 lbs" while I was still on the operating table! There I was, experiencing the joy of giving birth to a healthy beautiful boy and she was giving me a lecture on my weight? That was the only birth I ever experienced and it was forever tarnished by her inappropriate, insensitive attitude. Don't use this doctor, ever.

Dr. Rodke is AMAZING in the delivery room and made sure that I had the labor I wanted. I left the hospital feeling heroic! To me this means the world, and I will forever be grateful that my first baby entered a world that is calm, loving and to an empowered mother. She was at the hospital (St. Lukes birthing center) from when I arrived until the wee hours when my lovely boy was born. During active labor, I asked her for directions, they were clear and precise. This helped me maintain a calm yet intense focus while pushing. I suspect the perineal massage she gave at the last stage is why I had no tears (sorry if this is too much information, but we are talking about birth...).
Dr. Rodke's expertise and knowledge extends beyond traditional gynecological methods; this was evident to me long before the delivery room. I have rheumatoid arthritis and have an umbilical hernia. With a suggestion that I change my diet for the duration of my pregnancy I managed to have almost no rheumatic pain and additionally kept my inflammation down. I plan to continue this diet because it works so well. For my hernia she suggested certain exercise and made sure I have a band after delivery for when the intestines come back into place.
I am writing this review with my 10 day old baby next to me and I am still amazed that I feel great! Yes, I am sleep deprived, but I walked out of the hospital (in under 20 hours) with all my strength intact and ready to start motherhood. Of course, women who do not follow Dr. Rodke's counsel during pregnancy may find themselves unprepared for an unmedicated labor, but with her advice it is better than one could ever hope for. I have only listed a few of Dr. Rodke's suggestions that make her such a unique OB-GYN. My needs merely tapped into a fraction of the rare combination of her skill set. In short, she is fantastic.

We went to Dr. Rodke for a VBAC after being told she was the best in the city for this. She billed herself, essentially, as a midwife with an MD - someone who would be present throughout the labor and be available to help me cope with contractions without drugs. She was helpful and informative during routine visits, although my husband was put off early on by her unwillingness to engage him directly (she never even said hello to him). My last two visits with her before labor made me a little nervous. During the first of the two she performed an incredibly painful exam - brought me to tears - and didn't tell me until afterward what she was doing or why. Then, several days before my due date, she stripped my membranes without asking. When I went into labor, she met me at the hospital with a cell phone in her hands, and she had it out intermittently throughout the labor, including while I was pushing and several times when I was asking - begging, really - her to help me through the toughest of my contractions. At one point my husband looked over and she was shopping online in the middle of a contraction. She was so distracted that she failed to give me an exam before telling me to start pushing. As a result I ended up pushing for almost five hours, during which time she became increasingly frustrated with me for not getting it right. I felt ignored, disrespected and unsupported throughout the labor. Finally, I consented to an epidural because I felt I wasn't getting the help I needed and if I didn't get through this I would end up in another c-section. We ended up with the VBAC we wanted and a healthy baby boy, but I will never see Dr. Rodke again and I would never recommend her to anyone looking for a supportive childbirth experience.