Seeing "Natural Birth Friendly" OBGYN in Arlington, Texas

In my experience as a doula, finding a TRULY natural birth friendly care provider in the Arlington and Mansfield area is next to impossible. One of the issues is the hospitals in these area have some pretty strict policies on many things therefore which include using interventions in most situations. As the PP suggested, there are two birth centers in the Grand Prairie area and then there is Gentle Beginnings in Hurst. If your looking for a CNM who practice in the hospital---your best bets are Baylor Dallas, Harris Ft Worth or Baylor All Saints in Ft Worth. Obviously these are a bit more of a drive but I have never had a woman say she wished she had saved driving time to sacrifice for the birth she really desired! =) I have had clients who have lived 5 minutes from a non-natural birth friendly hospital drive 45 minutes to get the care and experience they wanted--and they were always so thrilled with the decision.
Anyways hope this helps and so sorry you had to have a "not so wonderful" experience to bring you to THIS place!

I'm not sure how you define "natural birth friendly" so I may be way off base. My Dr did what was necessary at the time for the birth of my first two children. for my third, I had to have a lot of intervention because of my medical condition, but that is not part of your questions so I will skip the details.

I wanted to have a "natural" drug free first birth, and my Dr was fine with that, I labored for 12 hours and I was at a 3 and having significant labor pains and my water had been broke for about 4-5 hours, I then requested an epidural... to make a long story short I ended up with a c section and a total of 29 hrs of labor and we did have to use a heart monitor on the babies head as there were several problems that occured along the way. Had I tried to have a home birth, I may have lost or caused damage to my baby. then came baby number two... My Dr was fine with me having another "natural" drug free VBAC... I ended up opting for the drugs, my choice, but I did have a VBAC with no complications, the Dr did have to assist the babies head past my tail bone, but as soon he did that, out he came like speed racer! my point is that he let me have a VBAC without any hesitation and he is willing to be minimally invasive as long as it does not have a negative affect on the baby. I choose to wear a hear monitor during my 2nd delivery for my own security and having had problems related to the first birth. when my third son came around (after a misscarage) my Dr was willing to let me VBAC again till additional complications came up (placenta previa complete) then I was required to have a c section. my Doctor is DR Paul Daum, he is wonderful, and I couldn't have got through all the problems I had (especiall with the complications of my miscarage and following pregnancy) without him, in my opinion most Dr's would have told me not to get pregnant after the miscarage. but he was very supportive about gettting me the help I needed to have my third child. Dr Daum is in the Mansfield area and I drive from Keller to still use him for all my Gyno needs. you can google him on the web, he has a website. he is a wonderfull caring man, and I think you would be happy to use him, just tell him what you are looking for and he will let you know if he can provide that for you, he is very open and honest. Most of his staff have been with him for the 10 years I've been seeing him, and the staff is always available to take your call and fast to respond to your needs, unlike the dr's of many of my friends and their stories.

if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, but I tried not to bore you with to many details, but I'm more than happy to share more if that will help you with your decision.

I too used Dr. Daum (3 yrs ago this May) for my son (firstborn). I transferred to him at 30 weeks because my other ob was subtly pushing for a c-section (she was part of MCA). I went into labor at home (water broke) went to he hospital in Mansfield to have him after the contractions got really strong. I had a doula, and she was accquainted with the delivery nurse who was OK with natural births. They didn't really bother me during labor except when a nurse said she needed to get another blood sample during a really strong contraction and couldn't wait the 2 minutes for it to be over. Dr. Daum did everything to try to get me to have my son w/o help, however we ended up using a vaccuum and a local (biggest mistake by far), which considering I was in stirrups is no surprise. I practically ripped a new one (Dr. words, "I haven't seen a tear like that in 15 years!). I know, TMI. I needed an epidural after the birth for surgery to repair the tear. I would highly suggest you find some other hospital than Mansfield. The nursing staff is horrible. They did procedures on my son without my consent, they drag their a$$ when they want to (I wasn't able to hold my son until after 5 hours because he "hadn't had his bath" why? Because they were dragging a$$). During my labor random people were coming in and out of the room because they didn't believe I was in labor w/o an epidural. There was (I believe) a total of 10 people in the room during my birth, door open wide, people poking their head in. Very unprofessional now that I look back at it. They didn't believe me when I toldl them that the formula was making my son sick, "It's not the formula, it's you" one nurse actually told me (turns out my son is allergic to dairy and soy, so yes, he was allergic to the formula). I was trying to nurse, which was difficult when they were trying to feed him (I managed to nurse him just fine once we got home!). I think Dr. Daum is an okay doc, the tear repair went well, I've had no lasting problems; however I used Amy Allred in Grand Prairie (birthing center) for my second child back in July and I am more than happy to reccommend her to anyone and everyone (they don't force feed formula, they don't take blood during contractions, and they respect their patients)! I didn't tear with my second birth (praise God!) and everything was happy!

So, long story short (sorry!) hospital at Mansfield wouldn't be my first (or second or third) choice. Birthing center off of Dalworth in Grand Prairie, most definitely. Congratis on your little one!

Ohh, another thought, when I had Daum, he was new to Mansfield, so he pretty much delivered his own patients babies. Now that it has grown and there are more docs, you might not get him at your delivery, and he was the "liberal" one (no epidurals, eating popsicles-so I've heard- during labor).

I had a natural birth, but it was in Fort Worth at Baylor All Saints with a midwife group. If I were to do it again I wouldn't go to a hospital, but a birthing center. My son was born naturally with no interventions, but all day long the doctor overseeing my labor was threatening a c-section just because he was a big baby. It added a lot of unneeded stress. I forwarded your response to my friend who is a Natural Childbirth Educator and has been for ten or so years. She lives in Mansfield and I feel with her expertise she could help answer your question better than I could. I feel strongly that if any woman wants to have a natural, unmedicated, no interventions birth, they have that right! Here is her reply:

"Dr. Daum is a jerk. NOT naturally minded at all. I had a mom in tears from her
postpartum visit with him. He treated her with unbelievable disrespect and
wouldn't even look her in the eye while saying these things to her. He works at
Mansfield Methodist which is NOT supportive of natural birth. They, like
Arlington, have too many policies in place that just make it impossible. I
address with what the doula said above, except I will NOT send people to Baylor
in Ft. Worth anymore. If they want a CNM, Harris downtown is the place to be.
3 reasons: They allow the full 14 days "overdue," they are doing water births,
and they encourage VBACs. Those are all huge. Plus, Baylor has a problem with
all three. The midwives aren't even allowed to do VBACs at Baylor.

Anyway, I would recommend several places out of hospital, but as far as a
hospital goes, Harris downtown is it."

Hope you find the right doctor or midwife for what you want your birth experience to be!
~C.

Check out Special Beginnings birth center and Family Birth Services, both in Grand Prairie. One of those might be a good fit for you.

I guess I wonder what your definition of "natural childbirth" is. For me, that is delivering without use of an epidural. My understanding has been that whether or not you have an epidural is your choice, not the doctors, so I would think that most doctors will do natural childbirths in a hospital setting. Now that being said, there are certainly doctors that vary on the scale of being conservative. For example, I have friends whose doctors have looked at them at 7 months and said, "so, when you're 38 weeks I'll induce you; when do you want to schedule it?" which I think is ridiculous by the way. I liked my doctor very much because he was conservative. He works out of the Baylor Southwest location only (don't know how they compare to downtown baylor; I know "Claire" seemed to have all sorts of problems with the Baylor system but I had a fantastic experience with baylor southwest with both of my deliveries). With both my pregnancies I went into labor the week of my due date, but he talked to me beforehand about scheduling an induction ONLY after I was 2 weeks post due, and at that point it was necessary because of the deterioration of the placenta; he does not induce before that point unless there is a medical problem with mom or baby. My oldest son, I did have an epidural (because my husband pressured me too, not the doctor or nurses), and I had about 4 hours where I did not progress in labor. My doctor did not rush the idea of c-section at all; he had nurses try some various positioning, and then in the end we opted to try forceps before attempting c-section (again, a choice offered to me, and while I was terrified at the idea of forceps, it was a much better idea to me than surgery; turns out my sons head was turned transverse and he was NOT going to turn or drop on his own-doctor turned his head with forceps and my son came out with 2 pushes). My second son came so fast that I did not have time for an epidural (which I didn't want anyway), and there were no issues with having the "natural" birth at this hospital. Now, if you're wanting to have a midwife or doula, or if you're wanting a water birth or something, I don't know if this hospital cooperates in those areas, but if it's an issue of no medication, I had a great experience with my doctor and the hospital; several friends who have delivered there have expressed the same sentiments as me. I'll be happy to give you more information if you want it.

http://www.tcbirthnetwork.org/
This site has istings of providers and birth services which all meet the mother friendly child care initiative. Btw Arlington Medical center has one of the highest cesaean rates in the area. Arlignton memorial has a "low" c-section rate.As does Harris Methodist inFirt Wirth. At Harris there is a midwife group... UNT Midwives all cnm's who delver in the hosital.this is their site
www.nurse-midwife.com/