Natural Birth with Kaiser Permanente?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a small OB practice with Kaiser Permanente? Ideally I would like to have a natural birth with intermittent fetal monitoring and a range of birthing positions. Is this even possible with Kaiser nowadays?

I currently see Dr. MA at Kensington, but I just learned that any one of 16 different doctors could be at my birth, and that has thrown me for a loop.

Kaiser currently has no affliations with any midwives or birthing centers and my plan offers no coverage for out-of-network services. Am I destined for a factory birth?

[Anonymous]

I gave birth 2.5 yrs ago at Birthcare through my Kaiser plan. THey won't let you have a home birth (unless you want to pay for everthing) but you can birth aat the birth center. I believe they still accept Kaiser, but if you are interested iin and out-of-hospital birth defnitely call them asap because they can only take on a certain amount of clients. Before this I was seeing a Kaiser midwife at the facitlity on K st in DC.

[Anonymous]

I think Birthcare dropped Kaiser recently, so that wouldn't work.

I went through Birthcare (with different insurance), but won't be able to for my next kid for medical reasons. I'm not sure what I'll do. Honestly, though, I think it's about educating yourself, knowing birth options, ways to cope, etc. Have you looked into Bradley classes? They were great for that stuff.

Of course the doctor is important too! I hope you find someone that will support what you want!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies--I appreciate the advice. With DH's encouragement I went ahead and took the plunge and booked with a great midwife. I don't really care the location, but I want to have control over who is there.

I also found out that DH's insurance has open enrollment in a few months, so with any luck we'll find another insurance plan that will atleast cover our CNM as out-of-network.

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

Yes, Birthcare dropped Kaiser (found that out a little late...).

I'd recommend going to the hospital as late as you feel comfortable with and then being assertive. The Kaiser doctor I had -- I'd never met him before -- told me do to some things and I was like, No thanks! and he went away. One unexpected benefit of Kaiser is they were so busy I don't see the doctor that much. I mostly dealt with the great hospital nurses.

[Anonymous]

I gave birth with Kaiser at Inova Fairfax - a known "baby factory" with high intervention rates (due to a lot of factors) and they were perfectly willing to let me go natural if I'd wanted it. I did not, and got an epidural early. When it wore off midway through labor, they gave me the choice to get another one or go natural. (I got another one.) I was in labor for 26 hours and only saw the doctors a few times, mostly when new ones came on shift. the nurses were fantastic, but that depends on your hospital.