I wish I could rate Erin Kershaw 10 stars! I have been a client of Erin's for 4 births now and I…read morecan say that her quality of care, professionalism and knowledge is excellent! Erin has always been encouraging and supportive as we have had 4 home births with her as well as a few miscarriages. She has always taken the time to answer questions, reassure me throughout the pregnancies (this most recent birth I was 46 years old and nervous about my age). I would highly recommend Erin to anyone desiring a highly educated, skilled and caring midwife to deliver their baby. Erin is the best! -Chrissie Lockman

I had a traumatic time working with Erin in 2021. It was my first pregnancy and things were going…read morewell at first. In the second trimester, she started mentioning that my blood pressure was elevated. I looked up standards online and it was not yet elevated, so this seemed more precautionary at this point. She kept mentioning that every single appointment. I started to feel extremely anxious going into her office. I was terrified of being risked out and I felt very helpless because I had already paid the majority of the agreed upon payment, so I couldn't transfer to someone else. Around 30 weeks is when things took a turn for the worse. I was panicking about appointments at this point, which of course would give an elevated reading. However, it was when she checked my fundal height and implied that I have gestational diabetes, without doing any testing, that really drew the line. At that point, the only testing I've had was A1C at the beginning and it was borderline pre-diabetes, so based off of that and her checking fundal height, she was asking for a growth scan with no other testing. I was not offered to check my sugars with a glucose monitor, no fasting sugar test, no 1 or 3 hour test, nothing, but her hunch. This also happened at the appointment after I made my final payment to her. At this point I stopped going to her because the anxiety I had was causing me too much stress. Feeling like you will be risked every single appointment based off of hunches made me feel so helpless. She never offered for me to check my blood pressure at home. She never offered anything except what I suspect is discrimination towards my weight. She assumed my higher weight meant health issues, and I guess it was too much liability for her. But, she had no problem keeping everything I paid her. I've worked with other midwives since and they know about this situation and to this day I am measuring BP at home because doing it in office brings up a lot of this for me anxious. That's why I called this experience traumatic, it truly was for me. To make things even worse, when I was giving birth at the hospital, she transferred records and in her records had but that I have hypertension and gestational diabetes, which led to extra testing to my baby. The hospital was shocked by both of those records because my BP was perfect during birth and my and my babies sugars were perfect as well. They wondered after the fact why it even said that. So not only did she risk me out for refusing a growth scan, she then sent false records based off of her hunches to a medical facility. The hypertension part I can understand bc of the readings in office (they never actually reached 140, which is the diagnosis for hypertension), but to say I have GD with zero testing to a hospital, as a "natural" midwife, is just beyond anything imaginable. I've gone on to have a successful home birth with wonderful midwives who actually cared about me and my wellbeing. They never assumed anything about my weight, they gave me tons of options for testing to make sure we have a full picture of my health. They never made me feel like I would get risked out. If anything was every wrong, we talked about it extensively, including what to do to help the situation (iron). If you look at Erin's website, you will find zero photos of anyone who is at a higher weight. She did not have to agree to work with me. I chose her because she claimed to be inclusive. This was a lie that cost me emotionally, financially and ruined my first birth being a home birth. I'm happy to provide proof of working together through email correspondence and receipts.

Unless you are having a baby, or see Dr. Ewing, don't go here. I have spent multiple hours sitting…read morein their waiting room for an appointment. I once waited for an hour just for a vaccination appointment with a medical assistant. I had an IUD appointment scheduled, they called 90 minutes before the appointment and cancelled it, just rescheduled it without asking if the new date/time was acceptable or fit my schedule. It wasn't. They then told me I'd have to wait another 4-6 weeks for a new appointment. They called after 9 am to cancel an 11 am appointment, so I had already used a sick day from work, etc. There was no apology, no nothing Just "this is the next soonest we can get you in" weeks later. Most of the doctors here just push birth control or other meds, without getting to the bottom of what is causing an issue. Did the midwives safely deliver my daughter and save my life when I had preeclampsia? Yes. Is Dr. Ewing a great provider to see if you are in perimenopause or menopause? Yes. Otherwise, absolutely, unequivocally, do not waste your time here. Because you will waste plenty of time and be incredibly frustrated. Edited: This is related specifically to the practice at 800 Walnut, 12th floor. I couldn't agree more with a previous reviewer who said " I view the office as a flaming wall I have to climb in order to see the doctors I've come to trust." There's just one doctor here I trust, but yes, I agree 100%

I scheduled an appointment and waited five months for availability with a specific doctor due to…read moretheir positive reviews. I was willing to wait because I believed the quality of care would justify the delay. However, the day before my appointment the office cancelled it, even though the office was open that day, and no one contacted me to reschedule. After waiting two days without any communication, I began calling the office daily. Four days later, I finally reached someone at their scheduling call center, who informed me that my appointment had already been rescheduled without anyone contacting me to confirm whether the new date or time worked for me. Not only was the appointment moved without my consent, but they also changed the provider, despite the fact that I had specifically requested a particular doctor based on my medical needs. This lack of communication and disregard for patient preferences was extremely unprofessional. To make matters worse, the new appointment was scheduled two months after the original date, even though the cancellation was initiated by the office. Given that I had already waited five months, this level of disorganization and poor patient care is unacceptable. The overall experience reflected a very low standard of care and professionalism. I would not recommend this location to others.

Cat's birthing class was amazing prep for my husband and I. We love information and having full…read moreunderstanding of what is going on, so feeling very ready to take on any birthing scenario in the hospital was important to us, as we live in a large metropolitan area. This class was informative and Cat is super enthusiastic, engaging, and down to earth, so it was very relatable and easy to take in the very detailed info. Information is all evidence based and designed to be able to participate fully in your own birthing care, advocate for yourself, and have full understanding of the birthing process. My hospital birth ended up needing many medically necessary interventions, and this class empowered us to make confident and fearless decisions for ourselves. Because of what we already knew from this class, we felt very comfortable with our care team and the information exchanges surrounding the events. Without this class, this experience may have been scary and traumatic, but the education we received in preparation made it feel very empowering and seamless. I 100% recommend this class to everyone interested in becoming well educated before their birthing experience.

My wife and I took Cat's EBB class and it was amazing! We learned a ton and now feel so empowered…read moreheading into our baby's birth. Cat was energizing, engaging, and very informative. We had many friends who took other birth classes with other instructors and none seem to have walked away feeling as calm and prepared as we did after our course with Cat.

Jennifer Hendrickson Doula Services was the one low point in my daughter's pregnancy. If it were…read morepossible to give no stars in order to give a review, that is what I would give her. The arrangements was that the doula would come to the house while my daughter was in labor. When she was far enough along, the midwife would be called, and we would all meet up together at the hospital. Jennifer came to my daughter's house while she was in labor, but she spent most of the time that she was there looking at Facebook. She did not provide any of the services that she had promised such as massages or heat treatments. Despite the fact that my daughter was in great distress, she never offered to get anything or do anything to help my daughter in any way, although she was very happy to have cups of tea and banana bread herself. Worst of all, she misdiagnosed the stage of labor that my daughter was in. She tried to get things going well before she should have, and had the midwife come to the house when it was way too soon. The midwife was so displeased that she indicated she would prefer NOT to have Jennifer accompany us to the hospital (and having a doula had been the midwife's idea!). By the time we finally arrived at the hospital, my daughter was exhausted and completely worn out. As a result, the delivery was adversely impacted by the involvement of Jennifer. After we informed Jennifer about her incorrect diagnosis of my daughter's state of labor, she became quite hostile and refused to provide any post partum services at all once my daughter was home. We had such wonderful care by all the other providers my daughter had chosen, but Jennifer was a very dark mark on the whole experience. I would not want any other pregnant woman to have this special moment marred by someone who does not seem to know what she is doing or give what she promises.

From the owner: Birth Doula, Postpartum Doula, Childbirth Education, Breastfeeding Support, and Placenta…read moreEncapsulation

I saw the midwives at the practice for most of my pregnancy, and saw a couples of the MD OBs…read morefollowing. They're a wonderful group of nurses and doctors and gave me the best of care during my pregnancy and postpartum! Gentle, kind, and knowledgeable.

It is sad to write a bad review for the practice. This review is for new patients. I was calling to…read moreestablish myself as a new patient at this practice. I understand this is a high volume location but when the person who took the call left the impression that she doesn't want to care for any patients; no empathy nor compassion - like the BE standard that Penn has promoted. This would leave a terrible impression for any patients that want to be seen by the provider at this office. Or was this done on purpose to get the number of patients down?? I can't even make an appointment after waiting on the phone for 30 minutes. The lady said someone would call me back in a week to give me an appointment. This is not a patient-centered practice. What a shame that this is a Penn practice.