Looking for female OB and suggestions for yoga, birthing classes in St. Louis

[jessicacw81]

Hi there- I am looking for a female OB in the St. Louis area (preferably to deliver at MoBap). I'd love a doctor who supports natural delivery, and is just overall respectful of the natural process of giving birth. I was in Portland, OR for my first baby and had an awesome nurse midwife. My understanding is that there are no nurse midwives who practice independently here, but if someone knows of one, please please let me know. Any ideas??

Also, since this is my first pregnancy in St. Louis, I'd love suggestions for doulas, prenatal yoga and birthing classes (loved Birthing from Within the first time around!). Thanks!!

[ambyuk]

Hopefully someone else will have a suggestion, but I just have to recommend Dr. Mormol. He is, well, a he, not a she - but even if you don't have any joy maybe his office could recommend a female doc with similar philosophies? He has a low section rate, is very supportive of natural birth, and primarily worked with midwives during his residency. :) I loved loved loved him. When I had my son, and he got to the hospital, the nurse said to him "so are you going to break her waters since she's 8cm?" - he grinned, looked at me, and said "I have a feeling Amber will tell me if she wants me to do anything..". :)

[ambyuk]

PS, Although there aren't many CNM's, there are homebirth midwives - have you considered that?

PPS MoBap is definitely the hospital to go to for natural birth!

[jessicacw81]

Thanks! I've seen other posts about Dr. Mormol and he seems great. I'm still hoping for a female but if I have a good doc of either sex I'll be happy. No homebirth for us- dh is not into it at all.

[Jeppur1]

I've heard good things about Dr. Linsey. I'm not sure if she goes to MoBap but she does go to St. Luke's which is also good for natural birth.

[Jeppur1]

Also, check out Purple Lotus Doulas in St. Louis.  

[MommyDOK]

There is a family practice doc who attends births in St Louis, Dr Sandy Proffitt.  She is very low-intervention. 

Also, there's a dr Lam who does waterbirths in St Genevieve.  He is a man, but has a cnm woman in his practice.  WOuldn't it be funny if moms started driving to st genevieve to birth w/ a cnm??!!!

Mo Bap still has a very high cesarean rate.  I had my (unwanted) cesarean there and colead ICAN of st louis so talk to moms every month who had cesareans there.   From my perspective, your doctor is the greatest impact on your chances of a cesarean.

Please ask A LOT of questions.  What's protocol with water broken for more than 12 hours??  What happens if you go to 42 weeks??  I found a doctor who agreed with my philosophy of birth, but I had to interview a lot to find him. 

Good luck!!

[arioth]

Hi there, I'm a little late coming into this convo but I'm an RN and IBCLC at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis City and we have an attending whose name is Jacqueline Turner who is the go to doc for natural births.  I believe she has delivered people in our birthing tub before.  Unfortunately she only delivers a Barnes but we are a sister hospital to Mo Bap so I like to think we do an pretty decent job too.  If you look at out c/s rate it is higher than the national average but it is inflated because we do the most high risk OB care in the area.  We have quite a few L&D nurses who are very natural minded and want to help people have the experience you want to have.  Dr. Turner is very hands off.  I have had personal discussions with her where she has admitted her favorite births to attend are natural births.  So she definitely might be worth considering!