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Review content:
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
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