Mr. Martin Brotman, M.D

President and CEO California Pacific Medical Center

2100 Webster St.,#423San Francisco,California 94115

cc: Judy Li, DPH. MBA Chief Administrative Officer

St. Luke's Hospital 3555 Cesar Chavez San Francisco, CA 94110

Mitchell Katz, MDDepartment of Public Health

101 Grove StreetSan Francisco, CA 94102

State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (12th district)

District Office455 Golden Gate Ave., Suite 14600

San Francisco, CA 94102

State Assembly member Mark Leno (13th district)

District Office455 Golden Gate Ave. Suite 14300

San Francisco, CA 94102


Dear Dr. Brotman,

I am writing to implore you to reconsider the decision to close St. Luke's as an inpatient hospital and cease NCE and pediatric care. We had our baby boy at St Luke's just last March. We switched to a practice working at St. Luke's (Homestyle Midwifery) because we wanted the most support for a natural and non-medicated childbirth in a hospital possible. Throughout my search we learned that many hospitals and practices say that they support whatever the woman decides, and we have no doubt that this is invariably true. However, the decisions that a hospital and doctors recommend are very much guided by many factors present in the "medical model" of childbirth. We didn't want to deliver our baby under this model, yet we weren't comfortable with a home birth either.

About midway through my pregnancy I switched from to St. Luke's because I was not satisfied with the care I was getting. The ob/gyn practice treated my completely normal healthy pregnancy like a potential threat, and my appointments were rushed and the practitioners impatient. I am so grateful that we caught word of the Homestyle practice at St. Luke's, and we were so lucky to get the last spot for the month I was due. I live nearby in the neighborhood Bernal Heights, so the location was even better. We couldn't believe how lucky we were.

My labor and delivery was truly exhilarating. Our son was born perfectly healthy (9 on the apgar) and is still thriving. Since I had lots of childbirth education both from my practitioners and through classes, not once did I ever feel concerned that this labor was going so long, or that I was pushing so long. My midwife and the nurses also never suggested that things were not progressing fast enough, and I never felt threatened enough to have an epidural or other medications. I don't consider the birth of our son a medical event that I had to endure.

Since his birth, I have had some shocked reactions about my practitioners "letting" me labor or push for so long. Since then a few acquaintances of mine (delivering in other states) have had similarly long labors and were led to Cesarean sections due to a "non-progressing labor," or were subtly pressured to have a pitocin and an epidural, although everything else was normal--they were just laboring long. These stories convince me that had I been anywhere other than St. Luke's, I would not be singing the praises I am today--either about the birth experience or about the hospital.

A lot of friends and acquaintance of mine here in the city are becoming aware of St. Luke's and its unique approach. The Homestyle practice is such a unique offering in the Bay Area, that I can imagine many more practices like it, all working in the gem that is St. Luke's. It seems as if there is a real opportunity here to revitalize and infuse St. Luke's with the midwife model of childbirth that is not available at any other hospital in the city.

Tina Joh, Bryan Olson and Cecil Joh