About Dr. Stu

Stuart James Fischbein, MD was Board Certified in 1989 by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and became a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics & Gynecology in 1990. Since completing his residency, he has been in solo clinical practitioner for 36 years. While well trained at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in the standard medical model of obstetrics he had the respect and vision to support the midwifery model of care and served as a backup consultant to many home and birthing center midwives for 25 years. In 1996 he founded The Woman’s Place for Health, Inc., a collaborative hospital-based practice of Certified Nurse Midwives and Obstetricians in Ventura County, California. In 2010, he left hospital based practice to join his midwife colleagues in supporting women in a community setting throughout Southern California.

In 2004, Dr. Fischbein co-authored the book, “Fearless Pregnancy, Wisdom & Reassurance from a Doctor, a Midwife and a Mom.” For his efforts he has been awarded the Doulas Association of Southern California (DASC) Physician of the year award three times and, in 2008, was the very first recipient of DASC’s lifetime achievement award in support of pregnant women. He has spoken internationally on breech and twins and the right of informed decision making. He has appeared in many documentaries, including: “More Business of Being Born”, “Happy Healthy Child”, “Reducing Infant Mortality”, “Heads Up: The Disappearing Art of Vaginal Breech Delivery” and multiple YouTube, Rumble, and Instagram videos discussing birth choices and respect for patient autonomy and decision making.

Dr. Fischbein recently stopped practicing community based birthing and now travels around the world sharing his knowledge with and teaching skills to birth workers. He is an outspoken advocate of informed decision making, the midwifery model of care and human rights in childbirth, receiving the 2016 “Most Audacious” award from HRIC and the Association for Wholistic & Newborn Health. Hear more of his thoughts and advocacy for evidenced-based, reasonable choices on his podcast with co-host Midwife Blyss Young. Most recently he is creating content for his private community on Patreon. He is the primary author of three peer-reviewed papers; 

1) Homebirth with an Obstetrician, A Series of 135 Out of Hospital Births 

2) Breech birth at home: outcomes of 60 breech and 109 cephalic planned home and birth center birth

3) Case Report: A Maneuver for Head Entanglement in Term Breech/Vertex Twins.

4) Dr. Stu’s CV

Dr. Fischbein still shares his wisdom by virtually consulting with pregnant women while also teaching hands-on seminars on breech birth around the globe. He has the goals of improving collaboration amongst the differing professions in the birthing world and the re-teaching of the core skills, such as breech and twin vaginal birth, that make the specialty of obstetrics unique.