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D.C. Area Babies
DC area Natural Childbirth Question
Hi there, Ive been lurking here a while because my husband and I want to begin TTC this fall and I am researching doctors and hospitals. We are currently considering the Bradley Method for childbirth and I wanted to know if anyone here has any recommendations on doctors or mid-wives you have had a positive experience with in the DC area? We live in Tysons Corner but are willing to travel for the right doctor. I just dont want to be treated like a number if that makes sense and at the same time would prefer to have a natural childbirth in a hospital. Ive done some searching on other boards and google etc but not finding any good leads yet. Thanks in Advance for any thoughts you may be able to share!
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Re: DC area Natural Childbirth Question
Dr. Tschabo (also does high-risk women who are interested in going as natural as possible) and Dr. Paula McKenzie -- both in NoVa
I had my homebirth with Birthcare in Alexandria - all the midwives there are great!! Dr. McKenzie is their covering physician. They have a great orientation session once per month about their practice and natural birth. They also have a birth center, if you are interested in that.
If you are interested in a doula, PM me - I had a great one!!
AJM (with some nubmers after it) is a recently certified Bradley instructor, and I think she has a class starting soon in Old Town.
You might want to get in touch with her - she may have some advice. I don't have her contact info here, but you could page her.
AJM's contact info is in this post:
https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/28860474/ShowThread.aspx
I think opting for pain-med free is much more dependant on you, your support people (doula or otherwise), and your provider (ob/gyn or midwife) than the hospital. For example, I know many ladies who've gone without pain meds at Sibley!
For Check out the Birthing Inn at Inova Loudon, and I had a great experience with Midwifery Care Associates in Rockville.
if you want a hospital birth, i'd go with dr. mckenzie. dr. tchabo is great too, but his bedside manner leaves much to be desired (from personal experience and that of several IRL friends) and the other doctors who cover for him are not natural birth friendly at all (from what i've heard - have no personal experience).
the above referenced birth center, BirthCare and Women's Health only provides birth center and home births. most of the CNMs there are fabulous. i did not care for my attending MW at all and have heard similar complaints about her from several other moms. but the rest are all wonderful. i was a birthcare transfer and dr. mckenzie did my c/s. she was awesome and totally got that this was not my preference and took extra care to help me handle the transition.
both mckenzie and tchabo have higher c/s rates than would be desirable for a mom seeking a natural birth. however, dr. mckenzie gets most of the transfers from birthcare (some go to tchabo) and usually, that's for interventions and/or c/s. tchabo gets most of the transfers from CPMs in the area and usually, that's for the same.
this website can give you info on c/s rates of area hospitals and providers. however, it's important to know the clientelle that these hospitals/providers serve as well. sometimes, that discounts a higher rate.
dr. mckenzie's office staff isn't always the greatest but the nurse is fab, and her wait time can vary between 20-45 minutes. dr. tchabo's office staff is nice but the nurse sucks, the wait can be up to 2hrs and the office looks like a tornado hit!
another bradley teacher rec is nestie jenair. her website is www.namastedoulas.com. she teaches bradley, provides doula services and maternity/labor/newborn photography.
for any questions or general convo on natural birth, visit the natural birth board on the bump!
Would you mind telling me who this was? I'm planning a second birth with BirthCare and would like this information. I think I have an idea of who it might be, but I am curious - if you aren't comfortable posting, would you please send me a private message??
Thanks so much!!
One other idea I will toss out if you are willing to travel to D.C. and are pretty open-minded is where I went with my second, Family Health and Birth Center.https://www.yourfhbc.org/about.html
I can't rave enough about the care and the nurturing of the midwifes and support staff there. They do births both on site and at Washington Hospital Center (which is fine, but nothing to rave home about - my first was delivered at Sibley, which I really liked). They do group care, which I liked too - meaning you were put in groups with women due around your time period and you could learn from each other. You won't be treated like a number here, every time I would come in for an appointment or after I gave birth so many people would stop and talk to me and ask how I was doing. The midwifes have incredibly strong education and experience backgrounds across the board.
RE: my comment about being open-minded. The primary mission of the center is to serve lower income women from some of the poorer wards from D.C. The center is not the swankiest building (but clean and well run) and is in a so-so part of D.C. (NE by H and Bladensburg Road). The center does see clients with insurance, but the majority (I believe) of their clients are on assistance or other paying options. The fellow moms to be that I saw there ran the gamut from yuppies to young teenage moms on their third or fourth birth - so definitely it was eye opening to me. Anyway, I say all this not to judge, but to be frank so it won't surprise you if you go there.
As a side note the founder of the center won a MacArthur grant for her work doing this which is a pretty strong testament to the work that the center does.
I had two natural childbirths - one at Reston and one at Loudoun. I agree with the person who said that it's really mostly up to you, not the hospital. For example, at Reston I got a lot of funny looks when I said I was having a natural childbirth, they don't allow doulas (at least they didn't back in 2006 when I had DD1), just generally speaking things aren't really set up for natural childbirth. They assume that everyone coming in will want an epidural... at least that was my experience. That said, while I was induced, I still had a med-free (besides pitocin) childbirth there. While I didn't want to be induced, at least the dr who was working with me on induction was one of the doctors in the practice who was supportive of natural childbirth (I'd say 2/4 were supportive) - they've all changed since then anyway so no need telling you about the practice.
My second was with Loudoun Community Midwives at Loudoun Hospital (Birthing Inn). I love them! Everyone at LCM and the hospital was very supportive of natural childbirth. The labor rooms have labor tubs in them (I didn't get to use them because DD2 was born 5 min after I arrived!).
Also, I took Bradley classes before having DD1 and really liked them. I know you didn't specifically ask about that, but I highly recommend the classes.