Which Midwife Program Is Better for Natural Labor, Harris or Baylor All Saints?

Ugh, I hate North Hills. Which is why even though I live down the street from it, I choose to go to Bedford at H-E-B. I know that that Harris hospital does not accomodate for water birthing. I was stuck in my bed, but I had to have magnesium for blood pressure. So, good experience, but probably not the one you'd be looking for (and they kept trying to force me to get an epidural, but thankfully labor was only 3 hours....) This was 2 months ago.

I had both of my children naturally (read no drugs) at Harris. I didn't want a waterbirth, but they do have jacuzzi tubs for relaxing and they let me get up and walk around a lot. Of course you will be hooked up towards the delivery to a contraction/fetal heart rate monitor (the belly band thing). I had an incredible experience and I would strongly recommend Harris downtown!!! Additionally, they are a level 3 NICU and are the ONLY hospital with a skybridge to Cook Children's (just in case).
I really like Kathleen Donaldson and her group of miwifes, but I did deliver with a different group who was working at Harris at the time, but truely a mother friendly experience. Pro-family. This is THE hospital you want to have a baby at. :)

My daughter had a baby two weeks ago at Baylor All Saints. She was in labor 13 hours and was not allowed to walk around. I didn't see any women on the floor walking around. My daughter's labor was pretty grueling.

That's all I know.

Texas Health Harris Fort Worth does offer a water birth option. It's a great hospital and very open to midwives. You can find more information at: http://www.texashealth.org/body.cfm?id=1288

my friend delivered at baylor grapevine. She didn't have to be hooked up to anything and she walked around. The nurses would leave her alone too. She did say she asked for a nurse that was comfortable with natural birth. She is planning on delievering there again in april and was very happy with her experience. I would go tour the hospitals you are interested in and ask a lot of questions. I delievered at Harris downtown and loved my experience there. I am not a natural girl and had an epidural and was induced. But my nurse was FANTASIC and the care was really great. I have also heard that harris downtown is rated one of the top 10 hospitals in the nation to deliver at.

I had a natural birth at Baylor with a midwife group, but for my next birth I will not use them or Baylor again. They said a lot that they were for a natural mother friendly birth, but when it came to the end that weren't as accommadating (sp?). That last week of my pregnancy I was threatened w/ a c-section b/c they were saying my baby was 10lbs 13oz, which caused so much stress that I didn't go into labor on my own. I didn't want to be induced at all, but "had" to when I was five days over my due date b/c my baby was "too big". They broke my water. They said they wanted to give me pitocin, but I asked to hold off. Thankfully my little man came on his own then. But like I said before there was a lot of stress and threats that I was very unhappy with. Oh, and my baby was 9lbs 10oz, not as big as they had predicted. But things could have gone very differently. And from several friends I've heard they had some similar situations that ended a lot worse than mine; induced, drugs, c-section, etc. I was happy w/ the midwifes up until that last week and then I didn't like the decisions they were forcing on me, I think mainly from the doctors and hospital they were under. I have heard wonderful things about Harris hospital and midwives! Also my husband was a 4th year med-student last year and did his OBGYM rotation at Harris and was w/ several of the midwives. He was very impressed and wished we had gone w/ them over Baylor. If I'm in Fort Worth next time around I'm going to definitely use them if I use a hospital. I'm actually thinking about a birth center, but time will tell:)