kaiser sunset - midwives/natural birth

msjanet02

anyone look into this? i was informed at one of my earlier visits that there are midwives available. any experiences or things you've heard? i'd like to attempt a natural birth and don't want people pushing epidurals and pitocin and c-sections on me. i'd also like to birth in a position that feels good and natural to me, so i'm hoping what i've heard so far about kaiser sunset (overwhelmingly good things) is true!

ch3nsz

My baby was born at kaiser sunset on nov 2011. All i can say is that they will not let you deliver your baby in any position you like. They will only allow you to lay on your back a little higher with some kind of foot thingy for you to push on, and they call that position: squatting. They will also put the iv on your hand 'just in case' you need it. With that ready, they will keep asking you if you need the epidural everytime they come to your room. There's just no way avoiding it unless you really go to a real midwive birthing place. I wanted to do all natural but ended up... oh well... I'll do water birth for my second :

cate041206

I had my baby last November as well, at Kaiser Woodland Hills. I did get a midwife for the birth, but only because she happened to be on duty. As far as I can tell, you get attended by whatever Dr. or midwife is on shift. I really lucked out, my midwife was fantastic. Even though I ended up having an epidural, no one ever tried to push any drugs on me. I had to ask for the epidural specifically. They also have you fill out a form (I guess it's like a birth plan) with your preferences, so you can say you prefer no drugs. I only have great things to say about Kaiser...they are very baby-friendly. Unlike Cedars-Sinai, where I had my other 2 kids...it's a C-section factory where the top concern seems to be churning out the babies as quickly as possible (not to mention the drugs galore available, AND they push them on you). I somehow managed to get out of Cedars alive (and non-C-sectioned)!

ZoogirlOct06

I had my DS at Kaiser Sunset in April 2011. We had taken a 12week natural birthing class very similar to Bradley method, class not associated with Kaiser. We were very prepared when the time came. We had a birthing plan with 10 plus copies made in our hospital bag. We ended up coming to the LD dept at 3am. We told them we had a birthing plan which included no epidural no IV no pintocin. Also intermittent monitoring so we were not stuck in bed. The doctors no midwives on duty overnight were totally cool with everything except I had said no IV port because I have a needle phobia. They kinda fought me on that and I finally gave in. I came in to LD dept at 7cm so I wasn't in the mood to fight it for very long. But everything else was great. They definitely did NOT bug me about getting an epidural or anything else I didn't want. I wasn't sure what birthing position I would go with so I just followed their instructions which was the semi upright position. But it was fine with me. kaiser is well known for not jumping the gun on csections. All the after baby care was great. Baby stays with mom in the room. I had a very good experience. The only fear I had was getting stuck in traffic going down to sunset but my DS decided to come in the middle of the night anyway!

leonavictoria

Thanks for your insightful info. Could you let me know what a DS is and where you took your 12 week natural birthing class? 

Xx

ZoogirlOct06 said:

I had my DS at Kaiser Sunset in April 2011. We had taken a 12week natural birthing class very similar to Bradley method, class not associated with Kaiser. We were very prepared when the time came. We had a birthing plan with 10 plus copies made in our hospital bag. We ended up coming to the LD dept at 3am. We told them we had a birthing plan which included no epidural no IV no pintocin. Also intermittent monitoring so we were not stuck in bed. The doctors no midwives on duty overnight were totally cool with everything except I had said no IV port because I have a needle phobia. They kinda fought me on that and I finally gave in. I came in to LD dept at 7cm so I wasn't in the mood to fight it for very long. But everything else was great. They definitely did NOT bug me about getting an epidural or anything else I didn't want. I wasn't sure what birthing position I would go with so I just followed their instructions which was the semi upright position. But it was fine with me. kaiser is well known for not jumping the gun on csections. All the after baby care was great. Baby stays with mom in the room. I had a very good experience. The only fear I had was getting stuck in traffic going down to sunset but my DS decided to come in the middle of the night anyway!

msjanet02

@leonavictoria DS means "dear son" (and "DD" means "dear daughter")

FYI: i successfully gave a natural med-free birth at kaiser sunset with my doula! they respected my birth plan (i could tell each new staffer read it), never offered me ANY drugs, did intermittent monitoring as requested (only about 4 times), left us alone, and were just wonderful! i used the shower, squat bar, my birthing ball, they brought warm compress when requested... it was great. i did ask them to remove the hep lock about 10 min after laboring because it was snagging on things. i also didn't like that i had to push with my feet in stirrups. that caught me off guard. but they did allow me to move the bed as upright as i wanted, i used the stirrups as foot braces to push against, and i held on to bed rails for leverage. i'm really impressed with how kaiser honored and respected my birth plan and would recommend it to others. 

melviney

Great to know ladies. Thank you for sharing. I have kaiser on sunset as well and have only heard good things about their LD ward. I'm having twins so not sure how my experience will be. Due in December.