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[quote=Anonymous]OP--I was in a similar situation to you. I loved my OB, who practices at Sibley. But I called Sibley and asked how often they had unmedicated births there, and they basically told me "not often." I did not want to be in a place where they had little experience with the kind of situation I wanted (assuming all went well and no complications came up)....because I figured my OB would not be there the whole time and I would really be interacting with the hospital people. A doula is all well and good, but a doula cannot fight back against the hospital protocols on your behalf...only the patient can do that, and I did not want to be having discussions with strangers about electronic fetal monitoring when I was in active labor.

At about five months I switched. It was hard to do because I loved my OB but I explained to her and she understood. I ended up going with a home-based certified nurse midwife practice. I had a natural birth at home.

My husband was skeptical, but once we looked at the research showing the safety of midwife-assisted birth for low risk pregnancies, he became comfortable even with home birth.

In DC, I bet if you look around you can get a midwife assisted birth in a hospital, even this far into your pregnancy. You could try calling the midwives at the DC birth Center and tell them you want to birth with them at Washington Hospital Center, for example.

If you have doubts about your current plan, I think you should not just assume that it is "too late" to switch. People switch all the time for all kinds of reasons.

After my nonmedicated birth, I came away feeling like it was doable but not easy. I really was glad I had myself in a situation where everyone around me was supporting my efforts to birth without unnecessary intervention. I was also glad I took a Bradley class, which prepared me and DH for what would happen in the various stages of labor.

At the very least, if you do decide to stay with your current plan, a doula could help you put off going to the hospital for as long as possible, so you can get as advanced as possible in labor before going to the hospital. Good luck to you![/quote]

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