Dr. Darche is our MVP/hero of our first successful and recent pregnancy. Our baby boy was breech and she was able to successfully turn him at 36 weeks via ECV (basically turning him by pushing him from the outside). She's small but mighty and was a champ in turning the baby with confidence. She knew exactly what she was doing and because of her I was able to have a vaginal birth that we wanted. It didn't hurt as much as I thought it would.
She also delivered our son - my water broke 60 hours before delivery and after 3.5 hours of pushing I had given up until Dr. Darche walked in and coached me to push. If she didn't walk in, I would've given up bc I knew she wasn't going to let me get away without pushing the baby out. She gave me the confidence and strength I needed to push the baby out and did a great job. She's skilled, caring and gets the job done. She's an efficient communicator and has high EQ.
One thing I regret is not listening to her advice when I got admitted to the hospital to do the pitocin right away instead of the misoprostol. Then maybe I would've had a less painful and long birth (I had an infection and baby ended up in the NICU for antibiotics for 48 hours as a preventative measure). I had 5 rounds of miso before I dilated so it was a long process.
Anyway, I would recommend her to everyone and if you have a breech baby or delivering at 1100 Van Ness, then you better pray that Dr. Darche is on duty! She's a big advocate on vaginal birth - when the others were suggesting c-sections bc our baby was breech and measuring too big (he was estimated to be over 9-10 pounds and ended up being only 8 pounds 5 ounces at full term - 3 days before his due date), Dr. Darche turned him around and coached me through delivery. Also, I liked her response to my question what if the baby turned breech again before delivery - she said she would turn him around again! My husband got a kick out of that statement and I like her confidence. CPMC is lucky to have Dr. Darche. read more