Looking for Female Ob/gyn Who Will Do Vbacs

Its tough to find private practice SF OBs that support VBACs but SF General is very supportive of VBACs. Sage Femme Midwifery (Mission area) can hold your hand through the process. If you talk to the owner, Judy Tinkelenberg, she is sure to come up with some ideas. I know SF General is a county hospital but the doctors that practice there are from UCSF. Ultimately hospitals don't support VBACs because it takes too much of the doctor's time, SF General has 12 midwives on staff that take care of you until its time to deliver and get the doctor. Your chances of having a VBAC improve significantly if you work with a Doula, so you should look into that too.

CPMC is not very VBAC friendly and I believe St. Luke's closed their L&D unit sometime ago.

Good luck.

Hi R.--First of all, CONGRATULATIONS! Personally I would go to UCSF. Nearly all of their providers are great. In particular I like Patricia Robertson and the midwives. As long as you avoid Dr. Thiet you should be fine. St. Luke's is a great place to have a baby and their OBs and midwives are phenomenal but unfortunately they don't do VBACs for logistical reasons. I know a lot of women have their babies at CPMC by I personally would avoid that hospital, having had negative experiences with both OBs and hospital staff there, especially nurses. Good luck!!

Hi there,
UCSF is supportive of VBACs. I tried with my second child. Any of the midwives at UCSF are great. I liked Sherri____ (can't remember her last name at the moment!). The thing with UCSF is that you get a whole 'team' of providers and students and you will never know who will be on site when you go into labor. I recommend getting an appointment with at least 3 providers and creating a really specific birth plan. They are very respectful of your wishes.

Congratuations and best of luck to you!!

N.

whatever you do, avoid St. Lukes like the plague.. talk about overloaded.... it's a zoo.. had my child there and what a debacle!!! they lost , yes LOST a urine sample....and a myriad of other things happened, one of which a stranger came into my room... apparently the nut job had just had a baby but came back in and was supposedly looking for something, she came in twice.. she was wigged out.. not sure how she got by the nurses station!! THANK GOD my baby wasn't in the room with me, who knows.. the whack job might have tried to harm the baby... STAY AWAY FROM THAT PLACE...

congrats on your third!

i personally had great experiences at CPMC for my 1st child birth but each person/experience is different :) my 2nd will be delivered at kaiser-sf...

my sister had an un-necessary and painful and bad c-section experience at mills peninsula almost 4 years ago with her first born so when she was preggers with her 2nd, she searched high and low for doctors and hosptials that did VBAC. she found out there's only couple of hospitals that would encourage VBACS - UCSF and stanford. so my sister had VBAC at UCSF in mid-april and she loved the experience there.

she originally went to natural resources on valencia to find her doula (http://www.naturalresources-sf.com/). they have a meet and greet q&a session and they walk you though everything and my sister's doula was amy hyams (my sister lives in south sf and the doula would make house calls and is with you every step of the way). my sister also recommended san francisco doula group (http://www.sfdoulagroup.com/), too. midwives and obs will be on call at the hospital when you deliver but doula is the one you want to choose from the beginning.

if you'd like additional information about her experiences, i can get you in touch with her - just email me separately. whatever your decision, good luck.