OB And Hospital That Support Natural Birth in Mid-LA

Updated on November 19, 2009
S.S. asks from Los Angeles, CA
5 answers

Hey Mama's,

I am 23 weeks, due in March, and I need to find a new OB. I am searching for an OB in the LA area that takes HealthNet HMO (or I can switch to Athem Blue Cross HMO for next year if I find the right OB) and believes strongly in natural childbirth. I also want someone with a good bedside manner that does not treat pregnancy like an illness. This is my second child, I have a birth plan and a birth advocate, I volunteer in the birthing community as a breastfeeding peer counselor and have attended other births. I say all that to say that I know that I have to keep an open mind and that birthplans are not written in stone, but I also know that the culture of many hospitals and many women's health professionals is that labor and delivery are clinical, not natural experiences. I need an OB that believes in the power of women to pretty much birth their own babies with minimal intervention.

Does anyone know of a fab, natural birth supporting OB in the LA area? Also hospital recommendations are helpful; I've heard that Good Sam and Cedars are good for natural childbirth (can't go to UCLA midwives-insurance). Does anyone know about the midwives at California Hospital? Thanks

PS- Next step is home birth with a midwife, only problem is my insurance wont pay so I have to come out of pocket $4K

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So What Happened?

Hello All,

Sorry for the delayed response, but thanks so much for all of the helpful advice. I ended up going with Dr. Mark Dwight (and partner Dr. Margaret Bates) at Good Samaritan Hospital. I am more than pleased with my experience so far with Dr. Mark- he's very supportive of my natural birth plan and has a great bedside manner. I'm due March 15, just around the corner, so I'll try my best to update after my actual delivery experience at Good Sam.

Again, thanks all for your help and happy birthing!

More Answers

T.H.

answers from Los Angeles on

The best hospitals for a natural birth are Cedars, Good Sam and UCLA with the midwives.

At Good Sam, the best doctors are:

Margaret Bates
Mark Dwight
637 S. Lucas Ave. Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90017
###-###-####

At Cedars, you have a lot of wonderful choices:

Jay Goldberg
433 North Camden Drive, Suite 1190
Beverly Hills, CA 90403
###-###-####

Lloyd Greig
9201 W Sunset Blvd, Suite 708
West Hollywood, CA 90069
###-###-####

David Kline
10309 Santa Monica Blvd, Room 300
Los Angeles, CA 90025
###-###-####

Betty Lee
Lily Lee
Naomi Suriel
8641 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 102
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
###-###-####

Howard Mandel
10309 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90025
###-###-####

Dr. Jason Rothbart
10309 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90025
###-###-####

Dr. Jessica Schneider
10309 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90025
###-###-####

And I second the vote for Diane Dawson, although she has a 10 week old baby, so I don't know when she'll be back to her midwifery work, but possibly by March :)

Good luck and happy birthing!

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M.W.

answers from Los Angeles on

Yes, that's what I heard too: UCLA midwives and Cedars are supposed to be very open towards natural child birth. My husband and I took a childbirth education class at BINI Birth in Hollywood. It is owned by a doula (Ana Paula Markel) and she is a fabulous networker. I am sure she could give you some names of OB's in LA that support natural child birth.

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S.C.

answers from Los Angeles on

Mae Ushigome at Cedars Sinai takes Health Net. I don't know her stance on natural birth, but she's supposed to be really good, in high demand. ###-###-####. Good luck!

J.W.

answers from Los Angeles on

Hi S.,

Dr. David Ghozland http://davidghozland.com/ is good for a natural birth but in a hospital setting. He quite frequently works with Gilli Stuppel, a fabulous Doula http://www.gilliwellness.com/.

Also, you may want to contact Sacred Entrance Midwives www.sacredentrance.com. I believe they can work out payment plans should you choose a home birth.

I had a wonderful home birth with Sacred Entrance and Dr. Ghozland and Gilli were back-ups if I needed to transfer to the hospital.

Congrats and best of luck!

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E.P.

answers from Los Angeles on

HI S.,

I planned a natural water birth at a birthing center with midwives in the Mid-city area, but my water broke too soon and labor took too long so I gave birth at Cedars. My midwives and I worked with a great OB. His name is Dr.David Kline. He was awesome for my first child's birth. I couldn't avoid the pitocin/epidural, but he waited long enough for a vaginal birth. No other doctor would've let me labor that long (36 hours!) with my water having broken at the first hour. Anyway, his number is ###-###-#### and his office is in Century City. He's worked most of his career with midwives.

If you plan to go the homebirth route, which I did for my 2nd child in a birthing tub (the most awesome experience ever!), my midwife's name is Diane Dawson at ###-###-####. She'll travel to you for your monthly/weekly checkups. I had Blue Cross HMO Plus with there and they paid for 90% of the fee. I paid less with Diane than at Cedars. Now my insurance changed automatically to Anthem but I'm sure if you contact them, they'll have some papers for you to fill out to take to your midwife.

Good luck!

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