My wife wanted to have a home birth so our child could be born in a peaceful environment. We chose Full Circle Midwifery as our provider based on positive feedback from one of her friends. I found out later that one of my friends had his child delivered by Martina with Full Circle. While she was not present at our son's birth, I do believe Martina is a good midwife. She was present at several of our appointments and we hoped she would be present at the birth. Unfortunately, we ended up with Missy and Lanai. Missy arrived around 12:30 a.m., shortly after my wife began active labor. She had her cell phone set to make noise every time she touched a key and she had her ringer on. We spent about 10 hours listening to her phone. She was on it constantly, even while my wife needed pressure applied as the labor got more intense. Lanai arrived several hours after Missy. She was constantly on her iPad while my wife needed her (at least it didn't make noise). Once she began the pushing phase of labor, my wife had to scream for help almost every time a strong contraction began because the midwives were more concerned with their devices than her and the baby's well-being. That went on for about two hours.
Once our baby was born, I heard Lanai talking about how long it takes her to stitch someone up and she mentioned it not going well one time. This was not a comforting thing to hear while she was stitching up my wife (a doctor later told my wife that her tearing would have been less severe had the midwives provided pressure like they should have). The midwives talked about everything from a zombie apocalypse to how Lanai might have to miss teaching her yoga class that morning because of my son's birth. They were incredibly unprofessional throughout. When my wife confronted Missy about it, she was not the least bit apologetic. She claimed Lanai was on the iPad constantly to chart information and she was on her phone for work. The problem was that there was barely any information to chart and it was their job to be present for our son's birth. They checked vitals every 10-20 minutes during the last two hours and there is no way that it took more than a few seconds to enter that information. So, we got poor service and no apology for it.
There are more issues that I will not mention, but that should be enough to let you know how bad our experience was. We have had doctors tell us of two different things Missy failed to competently do, one of which allegedly worsened my wife's tearing. To make matters worse, we paid them to file claims with our insurance. Missy told my wife it was done in August, but the claims were denied and were being re-submitted. My wife's insurance company did not receive any claims until November, after several emails to Missy requesting updates. We will not be receiving much money back because Missy failed to get credentialed with our insurance company in MS like she said she would. So, we had a terrible birth experience that cost more than it would have had Missy done what she said she would do and should have done. read more
