Meagan T

Review of Birthing Your Way

Bait and switch. They prefer certain birthing meth...

Bait and switch. They prefer certain birthing methods and incentivize them, you ll finally learn that during orientation when they gave a lecture on which natural methods weren t tolerated. They don t provide you with information addressing controversies and the precautions they plan to take on legionnaire s disease (look up waterbirth deaths) or placenta consumption. They use outdated practices such as requiring pushing during birth, cervical checks, and catheters (supposedly if you don t pee on their timetable you ll never be able to have babies again). Heather truly believes rips happen randomly and there s little you can do. Trying to discuss cervical checks with was a headache, she kept assuming I was abused instead of addressing the controversies, and then during the birth she asked if my husband would like to do it. She even tried to get me to stop talking during prenatals and asked me to hire a doula instead for my questions. Both she and Carol list unverifable and/or expired certifications on their website--I've become aware of more deceptions since I posted on their other birth center page (also search for Heather Shelley). Even the center was inadequate. Their library was dated. The center was messy. No birth bars or ropes, if I wanted to hold onto things I was treated like a toddler who would ruin things. My husband was the only one strong enough to do counterpressure for my back labor. One gets 6 hours from the moment the baby is born to being dismissed, and most of that was taken up by procedures, meaning only 1 hour of sleep for me. Supposedly women who are having a hard time get to stay longer, but even with a complicated tear and no breastfeeding success I didn t qualify. Heather was obsessed with selling me products for an earlier birth, then I wasn t even allowed in until transition, and then I was ordered to birth as fast as I could (she was the only midwife at the time and she needed to leave). Yes there s another midwife now, but in a half decade she s gone through 4 (maybe 5) different midwives, 3 different doulas, lots of office staff, several different teachers, and a lot of students. What s going on? High turnover means you can t get attached to any benefits as they ll just change. It s hard to be put at ease when Heather was always bickering with the students because they couldn t do the PKU right, or they didn t realize the breast pump was broken, or they couldn t find the heartbeat. The students treated me like a child: no you don t want to birth on the toilet--that's weird, no you don t want to see your placenta, and you re going to be one of those moms that need formula (instead of being referred to an IBCLC to diagnose his birth injury that inhibited sucking and get chiropractic help). Students took my baby away from me after the birth for procedures, and discouraged nursing right away (he was fine, just routine); then they informed me that he wasn t sucking before I even test that out. Student care meant forgetfulness on so many things which led to my son probably getting the vitamin K shot twice, my birth plan was ignored (like being able to birth the placenta naturally, or being offered a place to sit during birth--they were more concerned about giving my husband a place to sit) they were short on ideas to help me avoid a catheter, and they even left me to labor alone at the same time my husband took a break, but they were great at reminding me that I could purchase products and services. I was told I could pick which staff couldn t come, but there was no way to make a judgement call. As for midwife care, take them seriously when they admit they're not as caring or resourceful as a doula on their website. A doula should supplement/enhance care, not be expected to patch up big holes. I first posted here almost two years ago, so if you re wondering what all the concurrent reviews are around 2 years those were in response to me (if you saw the original review it would have been a more obvious rebuttal)--likely recruited from her invite-only postpartum group.