I came to Erin when I was 32 weeks pregnant with my first baby. I had been seeing another popular home birth midwife group based in Philadelphia before that. I made the mistake of delaying my anatomy scan until my third trimester (anatomy scans are notoriously inaccurate at this point in pregnancy). It resulted in a diagnosis of intrauterine growth restriction that was inaccurate since the technician miscalculated my due date.
Instead of taking my clinical picture into consideration (I had no risk factors for IUGR) and putting their hands on my belly, the other home birth midwife group insisted that I undergo intensive weekly and bi-weekly maternal fetal medicine testing that was inappropriate given the inaccurate diagnosis. Not only was this testing unnecessary, but it likely would have resulted in an unnecessary early induction since these tests have a high false positive rate. When I declined, I was told that I was not able to continue care with them. At that point, I called around to several other midwife and OBGYN groups but was refused by many of them due to the IUGR diagnosis.
Finally, just by chance and a Google search, I came across Erin. She was the first provider I found who was not only willing to assess my situation for herself, but was also even comfortable providing care for me with some caveats if the IUGR diagnosis was correct.
As soon as I met her, I was extremely impressed by her wealth of knowledge and clinical competence. My husband and myself are both family practice physicians, and have had a lot of contact over the years with different birth providers. We can honestly say that we have met very few, if any, birth providers who combine Erin's level of evidence-based medical knowledge with more holistic herbal-based knowledge, as well as high degree of clinical competency combined with compassionate care. When I left my first visit with her I knew it was a huge answer to prayer. She actually put her hands on my belly, and was able to quickly tell me that my baby felt average in size and reassured me that the IUGR diagnosis was very likely unfounded.
Since I live in New Jersey, I was not able to actually have a birth in my home as she is not licensed here, so we compromised by going to a hotel in Pennsylvania. My hotel birth was truly a magical experience. Erin arrived soon after I did, and was quickly able to administer a bag of IV fluids there since I had been throwing up all my fluids overnight. She monitored my baby's heart rate through an entire contraction, which provided the same information that an initial strip in the hospital would have provided.
During my labor, she was very calm and gentle. She often reassured me and while she was vigilantly observing the situation, she was also very hands-off and allowed me to follow my body's lead. I had difficulty urinating afterwards, and she was able to quickly and efficiently straight cath me to resolve the issue. She even stayed with us for about 5 hours after my birth to continue caring for me and my baby and monitoring us to make sure we were okay.
I felt incredibly safe with her during my hotel birth, much safer than I know I would have felt in a hospital, where staff would have been much more intrusive and quick to intervene unnecessarily. Part of me wishes I could live in the moments following my birth forever, because I felt so safe, cared for, respected, and understood. I was treated with dignity the entire time, and even found myself experiencing an incredible birth high in the days following the birth.
Even though we live over an hour from her in New Jersey, she even made three postpartum trips to our house and offered to do so again if we needed her. During every encounter I had with her, she was extremely kind, understanding, and gentle with me. Since I initiated care with her, she has always been quickly available via text, and even continues to be postpartum. I am definitely more of an alternatively-minded person, and Erin is always quick to suggest various herbal remedies for different situations.
In short, Erin truly has been a godsend for us. My husband is a bit of a skeptical individual, and has had a lot of contact with physicians across many specialties. However, he has been incredibly impressed with Erin's level of care and knowledge base. Although he was initially somewhat skeptical of my decision to have a homebirth, he has been extremely happy with our decision to birth with her. I could not recommend Erin more highly to anyone with a low-risk pregnancy who fits the bill for a safe homebirth. read more