Kathleen Slone & Assoc

This practice is a jewel. I'm sad I will be leaving the area and won't be able to have more children with them. I wanted to go with a midwife group but I didn't feel comfortable going to a birth center. I wanted to be in a hospital in case I needed an emergency C-section. Since Kathy Slone group has privileges at Mercy and Mercy's mother baby floor is gorgeous, I thought I had hit the jackpot with this practice.\r \r My husband is a physician and was a bit wary of doing a midwife group. However after a conversation with an ob who highly recommended midwives for healthy pregnancies, he flipped. We were impressed with how much time the midwives spent with us during appointments. They know birth and were quite competent. Kim and Kiesha the front desk staff are amazing and treat you like family. I never had a problem getting in or being able to talk with a midwife. (PS Most painless pap smears ever done here!)\r \r I delivered with Kathy. My husband, who had seen many births, said the care was quite different from what he had seen. She stayed with me the entire time I was pushing, whereas most obs come in at crowning. (Mind you, not because they don't care, but because they are so busy!) She supported my perineum and coached me during my pushing phase. I had a cercival lip, which she flipped to help along my delivery. I delivered without medication or any tearing. My 1st child! Kathy also checked on me a few time post partum and was very receptive to answering any questions I had.\r \r Fantastic work from this group. I would highly recommend to any woman considering a midwife for pregnancy.\r \r more

I am currently not pregnant, but had some related concerns. I was just very pleasantly surprised by getting a call from Kathleen, just to answer some concerns I had, so that I didn't have to make / pay for an appointment... very kind, I thought. I also had a good experience getting an annual exam there. Should I get pregnant, I think I will be happy to continue getting my care from them. more

I had my baby with Kathleen slone in October 2011 and I seriously doubt I will return if/when I have baby #2. Kathleen, herself is a wonderful midwife but unfoutnately you do not visit with Kathleen often nor do I think she delivery babies often. I called about 10 times during my entire pregnancy into their voicemail and never did I call when Kathleen was on shift-meaning she was the one on call to deliever babies. As a another poster stated, I also did not receive great post natal care. Also, besides Kathleen, all the midwives are young and honestly, I only think they became midwives to get paid more not because they care about mothers' or women's health. \r I will say that my delivery went well, I wanted a water birth but due my own complications being at first time mother that after pushing for over an hour, I decide to give the water birth a quit. \r \r Also , the midwife who attended my birth did a decent job even though me and her did not get along and she knew I did not like her. \r \r furthermore, I know when I was searching for midwife group, people commeted that Slone's office is dirty...well its not dirty but it is small. HOwever, this should not be that important because you never have to wait unless you get there really earlier and you won't be delivering there so oh well if its small. \r \r In the end, I really hope that by time I get pregnant again, there is some better midwives groups around or my friend has already told me about her experience at University of Maryland so I will probably check them out. more

Think of Kathy as the Doctor from the show HOUSE. She is not the sweetest person on earth but she is a genius at what she does. I felt safe the whole time with her. I did not want invasive test or medication during delivery and Kathy honored this completely, never once questioning my choice. I really wanted a water birth, she went to bat with the hospital to make sure I had one even though they said I may not be able to. She was extremely competent. I would go back to her! more

I would not recommend this group to anyone. I was dissappointed in the care pre and post baby. Also, during delivery, the midwife acted like an MD the whole time. She did not listen to me at all. There is a young, very inexperienced midwife in this group who actually told me and my husband that she didn't trust her own judgment concerning episiotomies and other things. Scary. If I wanted to be seen by an OB, I would have seen an OB. Midwives are supposed to be different. more

I am fairly new to Baltimore and, being pregnant with my first child, I was unsure where to go for care. Once I found Mercy hospital and was sure that I wanted to go there for my delivery, I thought of going to Kathy's practice but was deterred by one particularly bad online review. Instead I found an ob/gyn group. They were fine but I always had a long wait to see them and they were rather brief once I finally got to talk to a doctor. When I said that I wanted a natural birth without drugs or interventions, they said that they would ""just sit on their hands"", if that was what I wanted. Although I was not acutely unhappy with that practice, I also did not feel completely supported in my desires for a natural birth. At my birthing class I heard nothing but good things about Kathy and her practice, so I made the switch a little after 30 weeks. I never had to wait more than 10 minutes or so to see one of the midwives, and they seemed genuinely interested in speaking with me about my pregnancy. I learned a lot about the various procedures that were being done during the pregnancy that the ob group had never shared with me. I went into labor early in the morning and Kathy met me at Mercy at 7 am. The midwives knew that I didn't want a hep-lock or any medication at all, and Kathy never brought it up. I am so grateful to her for her constant calm presence and encouragement during the delivery. She was patient and reassuring and actively helped me get through the most difficult parts of the labor. After our daughter was born, my partner and I were able to relax with her while Kathy dealt with the placenta and stitches. Although she told me everything that she was doing, I was not bothered by any of it. I am now healing rapidly, and thinking back about my pregnancy, labor and delivery, am so pleased that everything worked out the way that it did. Most of all, I am glad that I switched to Kathy and her midwives, and only wish that I had not been spooked by that review and gone to her office sooner. more

Think long and hard before going with this midwifery group. I used Special Beginnings Birth Center with my first preganancy and the care was amazing - I was recommended to Kathy and expected the same level of care I was deeply disappointed.\r \r As an RN there were many red flags from the beginning, but I assumed (wrongly) that they were there because I was a nurse and this was my second pregnancy. I had negative experiences throughout my time and changed providers at 35 weeks pregnant. \r \r look at all your options before committing to anyone. more

I was terrified of falling into a system that was likely to lead to a C Section and horrified by the priorities at hopkins. This lead me to an obgyn i was thrilled with, Michelle Morganti at Union, a Dr. willing to give me a natural water birth. But in my 3rd trimester Union gave 30 days notice it was closing down its birthing wing days before I was due and that everyone was to be reassigned elsewhere. Unfortunately my Dr. had no priviledges anywhere but Union and I had to switch again. Dr. Morganti recommended Kathy Slone. Kathy and Julie were very attentive and kind, while Kathy was clear and firm, a characteristic I learned is extremely important during labor. I was so pleased with my experience that Kathy also delivered my daughter 2 years later. By then she had two partners. I learned how Kathy had been fighting for midwifery in Maryland for decades and that the prevailing laws and medical establishments made it so difficult for midwives to work legitimately that she was the only solo midwifery practice in Maryland (many others worked within Dr's practice or on a casual basis), but Kathy fought the system to exist. This made her extremely popular to almost a cult status among expectant mothers wanting less medical intervention. While the partners were deeply attentive not only to my 24/7 well being (in the 3rd trimester) but to me personally. I felt special. In the end I had two successful water births by Kathy and was grateful that she visibly navigated the system, and when she introduced herself to the nursing staff she'd never worked with she said politely but firmly said ""we do things a little different, I think you're going to like it."" Afterward I found I had an amazed audience also deeply impressed with my water birth. Afterward my second water birth, and I was no longer an expectant priority, it was even more clear how overworked they were and I learned that the partners left. more

I was a patient of this practice in the summer of 2008. Two of the midwives who were part of the practice left right after I started as a patient. I was left with a midwife just out of school and Kathy. I considered switching to a different practice, but they were so kind during the office. And I wanted a natural birth without intervention. I lost 15 lbs the first trimester due to undiagnosed hyperemissi gravidum. I know now (second pregnancy) that I should have at least been put on an IV due to dehydration, at most been given medication. Nothing was done for me. I was told that it was normal and not to worry. I confessed to being unsure about this and the young midwife brought Kathy in and she said, ""Women get pregnant all the time and throw up. It's fine."" This was my only meeting with Kathy before the birth. The pregnancy progressed normally. Now, I must say, the office has very old furniture and appears unkempt. I thought of it as old worldly at the time. In my ninth month, I was examined on a sofa in a waiting room. It was dirty and smelly. I was too late to switch doctors. My water broke a few days later. I went to the hospital, labored in the bath, and told the young midwife I was ready to push. She checked me and said, 'No, you can't push. Don't push!"" and left the room. I did not know what to do. I was alone in a tub of water, my baby was coming and my midwife had left, there was no nurse. Just me and my equally inexperienced and confused husband. When she came back she brought Kathy with her. I hadn't seen her since that time in the office, she said nothing to me or my husband, jammed her hand inside and did something that really hurt. They did not tell me what it was just that I could push now (Later, a nurse told me that my cervix had a lip). After awhile, I decided I couldn't push in the tub well and wanted to try the bed. My husband got me out of the tub to the bed (no one else was around to help) and as I stopped to have a contraction, I saw Kathy asleep in the chair in the room. The young midwife was nowhere to be seen. I got on the bed and pushed and pushed. The young midwife appeared, yelled at me to stop talking in between contractions and then said, 'Oh no, Kathy, I don't know what to do!"" This was a very scary moment for me and my husband. Kathy woke up, came over and twisted something on my baby. He popped out. Later, I discovered he had been the wrong way around, wrong direction, with a caul (many doctors have said they are shocked the baby came out at all). I fainted, then the placenta wouldn't come and they pulled it out. I woke up and my baby was gone, and Kathy was teaching the young midwife how to do stitches. ""No, don't do it like that, it'll never work."" etc. All I wanted was my baby. They told me to stop crying and Kathy said, ""All new mothers are just the same."" with a roll of the eyes. I laid there in agony (no anesthetic was used) for 2 hours without my son getting butchered. I had 77 stitches, which I only found out about by stealing my chart. I had no after care from Kathy or the other midwife. (I must say, the nurses at Mercy are wonderful in the mother/child wing.) I have horrible scars and stretching where my stitches were. It changed the shape of my vagina and sex was painful for a year or more. I wanted a natural birth with a kind and compassionate midwife who would assist me in bringing my child into the world. Instead, I basically gave birth alone in a hospital without any kind of interest from my caretakers. Cons: Unprofessional, Degrading, Uninterested in Care During Birth more

I went to hopkins for the first part of my care and had a horrible experience. None of the doctors read my chart before seeing me and they rarely asked me questions about my life, health, or history. I finally vowed never to return when a nurse started yelling at me and caused me to have a panic attack in front of my older son for putting too much weight on and endangering my baby--long story short, it turned out I hadn't put on more than the normal amount of weight, they had been negligent in recording my weight and used faulty scales when they had. I switched to Kathy's midwives and it was worlds apart from the care at Hopkins. The midwives were incredibly attentive to my individual needs and concerns. I started having some signs of preeclampsia towards the end of the pregnancy, and they were incredibly alert and responsive to the potential issue, putting me on preventative bedrest and having me come in for more frequent check-ups. When I gave birth (Mercy was fabulous) Bayla and Kathy were with me the entire time--I would never get that kind of care from a doctor! I could not have received better care and would recommend this practice to anyone. Pros: very personal care, low rates of unnecessary intervention, Cons: office could be spruced up, no home births more

I had my first baby with them and have returned to them for other services since then. They have always been supportive, friendly, respectful and very attentive to my individual needs. I can't say enough wonderful things about this practice. Pros: Incredibly friendly, helpful staff, relaxed atmosphere Cons: No homebirths :( more

I went to Kathy Slone's practice for the birth of my second child. Everyone, from the office staff to the midwives, is so kind and professional. There are no sign in sheets at this office- when you walk in the door they know you by name. In my first birth experience with an OB, I saw the doctor for about a total of 15 minutes; however, with my second birth, Kate (the midwife) was by my side from the minute I arrived at the hospital. I have continued to go to this practice for my regular annual visits. I highly recommend Kathy Slone and Associates! Pros: Low intervention; wonderful staff; everyone knows your name Cons: Office decor could use some updating more

I have 3 children, and had regular OBs with my first 2 deliveries. My 3rd labor was long, contractions would stop, then start, and stop and start, etc. All told, I believe my labor took something around 27 hours. Kathy stayed by my side the entire time, and was wonderful to me. I could not have asked for a better experience with a midwife, and should I have another baby, I would definetly use her practice again. more

Kathy caught my second baby. She is amazing. I was registered to go to Mercy Hospital. I went into labor rather suddenly, and the labor escalated quickly. My husband and I spoke on the phone with her. She must have assessed the situation and must have dropped what she was doing on the instant. She actually came to my house, and got here in time to catch my baby, who arrived just one hour and ten minutes after I went into labor. I did not have a history of precipitous labor, so she completely turned on a dime to deal with this situation. \r \r My care during the entire pregnancy was outstanding. I highly recommend her.\r Pros: Minimally interventive. Cons: Office could use some sprucing up; but don't let this deter you from her outstanding care. more

EXCELLENT! If you want a FANTASTIC birth experience, choose them! They've been there for 4 of my 5 births and I've recommended many to her, all of whom have had AWESOME births as a result. One friend had to have a C-section and knowing this, was sooo happy to have Kathy by her side during the surgery. We've had a waterbirth as well with them, which was WONDERFUL! The midwife kept our birth very private, not allowing student observers which we appreciated during that time. Mercy Medical is also a FANTASTIC facility. I cannot say enough about how caring and sensitive the midwives at her practice are. You cannot go wrong choosing her practice. She will work with you in every way to make sure the goals you have outlined for your birth (we had an 8 page birth plan for all of our kids!) are met. Abounding in patience, exceptional in her expertise! If I'm blessed to have another child, I won't go anywhere else! They are the BEST! Pros: Knowledgeable, highly experienced, compassionate, will work with you on everything more

They delivered my first at Mercy Hospital and they will be delivering my second this year.\r They are very compasionate and they did everything according to my birth plan. They are able to do what they want at Mercy as Mercy seems to have a lot of respect for their practice.\r Pros: Water birth, more hospital options. Cons: Can't think of any. more

I went to Kathy Slone for my 4th pregnancy, after having bad birth experiences, including a loss. Everyone in this practice was kind, compassionate, professional, and capable. Even though I had to have a cesaerean birth, I knew why and I knew that my midwives did everything in their power to make the experience a good one. I wish I'd found them first and I heartily recommend them to anyone looking for skilled, compassionate well-woman and pregnancy and birth care. Pros: good care, no rushed appts, comfy office and waiting area Cons: parking in Charles Village can be a little difficult more

The midwives at Kathleen Slone's practice are amazing, caring, sensitive, experienced and professional!\r I had the wonderful experience of sharing my first pregnancy with them and they made me feel secure and confident. They are calm and concerned for both the mother and unborn child. I felt comfortable in their office because it was not full of gadgetry, monsterous machines or bleak. It feels like you're visiting your favorite aunt to go there and I seriously looked forward to every visit! I had the very best experience with my pregnancy and it was definitely due mostly to my time with these midwives. If you're looking for more personalized care, time to actually discuss your feelings about pregnancy and a genuinely special birthing experience, then these are the right midwives for you! If you want hi-tech, medically invasive and a generally cold experience...go to any of the other dozens of OB/GYNs in town. They're sure to enjoy taking your money! more

I was just on the web looking up Kathleen Slone's number, since we are moving back to the area and I'm pregnant with my 8th, when I ran across the ""horrible"" review of her practice. If someone is looking for medical interventions which, in themselves, have been known to greatly increase the chance of pregnancy and birth complications (including C-sections which are at a horrible and unnecessary all-time high of 29.1% of all births now in this country)--GO TO A REGULAR OB/GYN. Kathleen Slone delivered my 5th and 6th baby, and these were some of my best birth experiences. I recommend midwives, in general, to any woman I care about since I truly believe they have the best interests of the woman and baby at heart and their experience will more likely be one they will like to remember. Kathleen, in particular, has been around for quite a while and knows what she is doing. She's one of the best! more

This is one of THE WORST practices I've ever encountered. Highly negligent and lacking common sense approaches regarding the application of high-tech medical care and assessment when needed. Does not take patient's core beliefs or needs into consideration when making recommendations for further treatment by a qualified medical staff or hospital. Made me feel ""stupid"" for being concerned about my unborn child and second-guess my own instincts. Wretched practice. Pros: Friendly, Flexible scheduling Cons: Negligent, Too low-tech, too anti-intervention more