I'm a trying to compile a short list of holistic/natural birth friendly OBs for my doula practice and for future CBE classes. I figure if anyone knows of any midwife-in-disguise OBs flying under the radar, it would be the parents at MDC! So, besides Dr. Duhart and Dr. Mormol, who do you love?
I am particularly interested if your OB let you/encouraged you to push in any position besides on your back or a semi-recline, and kept the purple pushing to a minimum.
I know there have been discussions about this in the past, but I'm not having much luck with the search function.
I had Dr. Wasserman, who is Dr. Mormol's partner. I loved him! He was totally non-interventionist. I birthed on hands and knees at MoBap, which had great nurses during my birth. I was not hooked up to anything.
Dr. Claudia Krasnoff. I ended up c-section but my doula and her partner raved about her. My doula had witnessed her having her clients push in lots of different positions and once even had the mom catch her own baby because of the position she was in.
I would also love to hear about StL OBs who tend to be pro-VBAC. I had a successful VBAC, in spite of my OB, who really pressured me to have a second c-section! So with my next baby, I'll be looking for an OB who is very supportive of VBACs.
I'm in the ICAN group here and have heard great things about Blaskowitz (sp?) I wouldn't go near another OB myself, but he has helped ladies achieve the vbacs they want and actually knows the difference between "high risk" and normal pregnancies.
well i want to add a dr to STAY AWAY FROM, we changed our docs after one visit-he was truly horrid as a doc and i aqm shocked that doctors like this still exist-his name is dr richard hartman and he is in clayton, stay way from at all costs.
Just wanted to chime in here because I work at St. John's and I'm very familiar with many of the OBs on staff there. Dr. Vlastos would be number one, but he will only see the high risk gals. Other good docs include: Dr. Sarah Shores (and her group), Dr. Marsha McBride, Dr. Kimberly Lemoine and Dr. Kurt Strobach.
Can't tell you how this will actually play out, but my doulas have raved about my OB, Dr Becky Shelton. She has a midwife who does visits in her office and is apparently very "natural" friendly
This is turning out to be such a helpful thread for me, my clients and others I am sure! Thanks so much everyone!
So, one more question: who do you know who will knowingly, happily, or even begrudgingly, provide parallel care for someone planning a midwife attended home birth. I know Vlastos will, but again, thats only for high risk mamas. I know Mormol won't . . . . who else?
Dr. Shelton happened to be the on call doctor for my first daughters birth and I was so glad becuase I actually hated my OB. So when i found out I was pregnant again I immediately went to her. She is wonderful, so is Cindy the midwife in her practice (a shame she can't attend the births). She lets you have the birth you want as long as you and the baby are doing fine. With my first I pushed for five and a half hours, and I know any other would have done a c section but I really wanted to go vaginally and so she worked with me in different positons to make it so. She supports unmedicated birth as well as VBAC (a friend of mine is planning on this in March with her). The other thing I really like about her is that she doesn't rush you through appointments, she takes the time to sit down and answer questions and remembers little details, even when I was going through a rough time she actually cried with me. Can't say enough good things about her.
Two things to keep in mind, one that didn't bother me but I know bothers some, she delievers primarily at St. Johns becuase it is where she is familiar with but I had no problems having an unmedicated doula supported birth there. The other is that the two doctors that are her backup doctors, Dr. Maxson and I can't remember the other ones name off the top of my head they are NOT very supportive of natural birth, Maxson was actually my original OB and basically laughed when I mentioned a birth plan to her. Her exact words were "You can't plan what's going to happen so don't bother, it won't work out". She basically told me I wasn't going to be able to go unmedicated either. The likelyhood of her being the one that delivers is slim and don't let it deter you from seeing Dr. Shelton, she is so worth it!
Another thing to keep in mind about Vlastos. He is one of 5 peris in the practice and there is no guarantee he will be on call for your birth. I tried to get him to agree to "special" me (meaning he would attend my birth even if not on call) and he would not go for it. Luckily, I made it to term and got my homebirth, but just let your clients know that his practice partners are not at all natural birth oriented.
Valastos will for non high risk mama's too.
He did for me although I'm not sure if he does that for everyone (or exactly what made him agree to do mine though.) He delivered dd too and was not on call that night.
If you had to recomend one of these to get IF testing from who would it be?
I don't think we want an RE because we can't afford much in the way of treatment for IF but I would like to understand what we are currently up against.
I know a lot of other OBs refer to Dr. Bale. I have a very unique infertility issue. Dr. Bale tried to find someone to refer me to. (I had to have a very unusual surgery) He couldn't find anyone else in town who had performed the surgery more than himself.
This is a *great* thread. It's time for me to find a new OB/GYN. I'm currently TTC and have been diagnosed with PCOS. Anyone know if any of the dr's listed are knowledgable about this condition? My insurance won't let me see an RE about it.
I saw Dr bale for the first time yesterday. He didn't seem at all intimidated or condescending toward my knowldege about my own health. He was thrilled to see my charts and used the info on them to skip some standard IF testing.
I mentioned something about chiro helping my endo pain and he didn't really respond to that at all. I think he is pretty mainstream but not interested in bashing alternative stuff.
I left out the fact that my 3 year old is still nursing (not important right now at least) and the various alternative things I have tried to increse fertility didn't really come up.
I'm getting the testing I want right away (no lets wait and see from him).
In all, based on just one appointment, I give him a thumbs up.
This is a great thread! Thanks for starting it. With my first child I left my OB (whose name I'm interested to see appearing on this list frequently, Marsha McBride) at 30 weeks pregnant because of differences in birthing philosophies. She has a great staff and has a great rep for being a talented doctor and was very people friendly. However, when I mentioned I was interested in the least intervention possible with no episiotomy or inductions and as much of a natural birth as possible, etc. She was not all that supportive or encouraging. Seeing others' posts here though... Perhaps she is more open to natural birth than I thought and I just got the wrong impression from our conversations. As I mentioned I know she is a wonderful and reputable doctor - just not sure about for natural births. I know she does allow doulas to be present at births she attends.
I had a hard time finding a new doctor and finally found a St. Louis doula that was wonderfully helpful even though she was not going to be in the area around my due date. She mentioned she had attended several births that Dr. McBride was overseeing and that Dr. McBride did indeed favor episiotomies and had seen her cut them - big ones - at every labor she'd been to that she was attending. Her point being that if I did not want that I should look elsewhere for a doctor. She gave me several names of alternative OBs, one of which was Dr. Shelton, I unfortunately could not get a hold of her in time to consider using, but I've heard all good things. The other doctor mentioned was Dr. Renee Stein. This doula had worked with her in the past and liked her very much and since then I've met other women who have her as their regular gynecologist and rave about her. She was not accepting new patients when I called - she was pregnant herself - and I am unsure if she is now. The doula I spoke with then mentioned another doctor. She said she'd not attended a birth with him before but had also heard good things about Dr. (Todd) Justin Glass and the other doctors in Dr. Stein's practice. I called up the office again and asked about Dr. Glass. He called me back within 30 minutes and the first thing he asked me is what type of birth I was looking for b/c he wanted to know if he could or could not help me achieve it. We spoke for a good 10 minutes and he agreed to take me on. He's been wonderful! The rest of the doctors in the office are also great - you just have to remind them what you're looking for since most women do seem to want a medicated birth with inductions, etc.
This pregnancy we had some reasons to consider induction but Dr. Glass steered us back towards letting the baby come naturally in her own good time because he knew that's what we really wanted. He's very supportive of your goals/desires while still being very upfront about what he can and can't do. He has excellent bedside manner and is very easy to talk to and is very encouraging. I've yet to have a single visit where he didn't make me feel like he had all day to answer my husband's and my every question. The practice is very popular right now - all of the doctors are easily under 40 I would venture, and seem to be more receptive and supportive of alternative positioning, no episiotomies, etc. Dr. Glass delivers at St. John's, MO Bap and St. Joseph's. http://www.signaturehealth.net/Physi...2.asp?specID=4
I hope that helps. It's nice to find a site like this. I grew up around a lot of natural births and homebirths - attended and unattended - here in Missouri and am seeing a lot of familiar names. Once again - great thread! Wish I'd found it back when I was looking for a new OB. =)
Dr. Wessling (Webster Groves Family Physicians) is good about midwife attended birth. I don't know if you have to be a previous patient of his before pregnancy, but any blood test etc. could probably be gotten through his office...thats what I did. Also, I think Dr. Duhart, the homebirth attending dr in the area, would do your prenatal stuff too. Wessling has a website that shows what ins. he takes, just search the practice name on yahoo. I don't know anything else about Duhart, though.
I thought I had posted in here but I guess not. I want to post my experience in comparison with KysMommy.
I used Dr McBride at St Johns and had a positive experience with her. She was not my ideal doctor but I found her to be a good doctor and would use her again. I would not say she is natural friendly but she was open to natural birth. I agreed to have and IV (GBS positive otherwise it would have been a heplock) and to wear a monitor (wasn't attached). She did question my wanting to not have an epidural during an appt and I told her that it wasn't my thing. I went on to explain that I didn't have anything to prove, so if I decided that I did want it or other pain relief I would ask for it. She seemed satisfied with that answer and we left it at that.
I considered finding a doula and she did not encourage me to do that - in fact she said that she had some experiences where she felt a doula had tried to protect a patient from her and I could tell it had offended her. I opted to have a friend who is also an LD nurse instead; it worked out well for me.
I also told her I did not want an episiotimy and she agreed, stating that she rarely did them and they were not common in her practice. I also saw another Dr in her practice (name escapes me right now) but she is the 2nd in line to attend delivery if Dr McBride isn't there, also a good friend of hers. I spoke with her about natural/episiotimy and she said she wouldn't cut unless "it looks like your bottom is going to explode".
I consented to the regular up front testing/blood panel, GD, anatomy scan, and a quick ultrasound to check fluid when I passed my due date. I also had an early ultrasound to confirm and date my pregnancy. And the regular urine and doppler every appt. I had alot of testing at the end of my pregnancy because of PIH, which I did not consider optional because of the risk of stroke/heart attack.
She was insistent on checking me for dilation at 37 weeks. I will not be doing that in the future. I saw the other Dr for 38 and 39 weeks with no problems and at 40 weeks when she wanted to check I allowed her, reminding her of my pain from before. She began to check but I stopped her quickly because of the pain and she did not insist on checking.
As for the actual delivery, she was only there for a few minutes before my son was born. I was fine with that - preferred it that way. I ended up with a 3rd degree tear - no episiotomy. Because of the tear and other factors I did need some extra attention after delivery and I was satisfied with her care. She delivers about 80% of her patients.
Side note, she was very happy that we decided not to circ. It wasn't even a consideration for us so I was surprised how much of a reaction she had.
Also, I loved our nurse, Gina. She was very nice and had no issue with us going for natural, including being very encouraging when I was having a hard time. And if you go to St Johns and your water hasn't broken ask for room #12 - it has a tub!
Originally Posted by Pattyla
I saw Dr bale for the first time yesterday. He didn't seem at all intimidated or condescending toward my knowldege about my own health. He was thrilled to see my charts and used the info on them to skip some standard IF testing.
I mentioned something about chiro helping my endo pain and he didn't really respond to that at all. I think he is pretty mainstream but not interested in bashing alternative stuff.
I left out the fact that my 3 year old is still nursing (not important right now at least) and the various alternative things I have tried to increse fertility didn't really come up.
I'm getting the testing I want right away (no lets wait and see from him).
In all, based on just one appointment, I give him a thumbs up.
I'm glad that you had a postive experience. I guess I missed you posting this. It's great that he's getting right down to testing for you. He won't say anything about you toddler nursing. I've nursed through pregnancies with him. Even when I have preterm labor and most would say it's not a good idea. He also knows I toddler nurse. I'm glad you found him to be as I think of him. mainstream but accepting. I have also found him willing to bunk hospital policy when need be. He granted me a c-section when I was only 23 weeks gestation. He actually through the resident out of my room for arguing with me.
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