Momally has been a wonderful resource for me in meeting local moms and in sharing stories/seeking…read moreadvice. There are meetings organized by Andrea, Momally's creator but also more informal meetups organized by Momally members. The meetings organized by Andrea take place at her house. It is set up perfectly to host a large group of women and babies. It is a relaxed environment and I love going to meetings. Check it out if you are an expecting or new mom in Astoria!

From the owner: Andrea Scannell, founder of MOMally (pronounced MOM-ah-lee) provides private sleep consulting and…read morelactation counseling services. She also runs groups, classes and workshops for expectant and new parents.

My son and I thoroughly enjoyed the class. I am continuing to sing and sign to him when he gets…read moreinto a teething fuss and immediately his face lights up with joy. I hope one day that he will sign back, so we can start communicating. I would say the best time to take the class is when your child is 3-6 months old. My son started crawling right in the middle of the 8 week series at 7 months and the last class we attended he was all over the room. So it is a bit hard to learn the signing if you gotta keep up with a crawler all the way on the other side of the room.

It is truly a challenge to convey how much we love Lora and Babyfingers. Babyfingers has been (and…read morecontinues to be) an integral part of our son's life. We started coming to class when our son was about 8 months old and each time we walked into the room, his face would light up. After only a few classes he began to sign regularly. Over a year later, Lora has literally become a member of our family. The sense of community we feel when we walk into each class feels like home. Our whole family has learned the signs to several classic children's books and songs! Our son can sign dozens and dozens of words and continues to sign even though he can speak in full sentences. Now, we look forward to our ASL "master class" each week and we are confident our son's strong verbal skills are a testament to all he has learned in Babyfingers!

My husband and I went to the 6 hour class by Ceridwen recently. Just some background about us,…read morewe're 39 weeks pregnant with my 2nd child, his 1st child. My son is currently 4 years old. This class not only gave me a refresher, but helped my husband and I set our expectations, and learn so many things that even I didn't know the first time around. We learned about things from fetal stations to birthing positions to self advocation to coping without pain management drugs, and more. We left the class completely confident and ready for our bundle of joy.

Amazing experience with Liz!! She was so knowledgeable and amazing at answering questions. We…read morereally felt supported in the class and came away feeling much more prepared.

This place is stunning. I love the interiors. Gorgeous. I feel so warm, safe and comforted in a…read moresophisticated classic setting. The staff are phenomenal The best in the field I had a miscarriage and i deal with fertility issues and Seleni is absolutely incredible. I love my therapist

After signing up to see a psychotherapist at the Seleni Institute and being on a waitlist, the…read moreoffice manager wrote to me in early April to tell me that they could take me off the waitlist. She said that I would see one of their "clinicians," Ramaa Reddy. At no point did Ms. Reddy ever mention that she was a student intern practicing psychotherapy as part of her studies. I was led to believe that Ms. Reddy was a licensed psychotherapist. During our sessions with Ms. Reddy made me uncomfortable. She pressured me to stop taking my antidepressants, she pressured me to use an online pharmacy named Hers, and she pressured me to change medications. In doing this, Ms. Reddy acted outside the scope of practice a licensed Mental Health Counselor and violated professional ethics. Ms. Reddy did not comport herself as a professional psychotherapist. After several weeks of this behavior, I googled Ms. Reddy and was distressed to find nothing about experience in psychotherapy. A search of the Office of Professions' database revealed that Ms. Reddy was not listed as having any type of license or permit authorizing her to practice psychotherapy. The insurance claims for our sessions were filed by someone named Dr. Patricia Harteneck, who I have never had any kind of contact with whatsoever. When wrote to Seleni and called the office to ask for Ms. Reddy's license number and NPI, the office manager refused to give me the information and forcefully asked me whether something was wrong or if I was unhappy. I was very uncomfortable, but I explained the situation; she offered to pair me with a different therapist. However, I wanted to know whether Ms. Reddy had a license or not. To this, the office manager responded: "Of course, she has a license. Otherwise, that would be highly illegal." I asked again for Ms. Reddy's license number and NPI, and she said that she would email me the information. The next day, the office manager wrote to me that Ms. Reddy did not have a license to practice, but that she did have a limited permit as a Mental Health Counselor. I consulted the State's database again but did not find Ms. Reddy on the list of MHC limited-permit holders. When I told the office manager, she responded that Ms. Reddy did not have a limited permit, but was in fact, was a student enrolled in a Mental Health Counseling "bridge program" at Alfred University and was working at Seleni as a student intern under the supervision of Dr. Harteneck. I asked Seleni to provide documentation of Ms. Reddy's enrollment in this program, and they said they would provide documentation via email. Seleni has provided no such documentation, although Alfred University confirmed that Ms. Reddy is a student there. This experience has jeopardized my mental health. My trust, privacy, and confidential medical information were violated. No one disclosed to me that Ms. Reddy was a student at any point in time. I never consented to being treated by a student. Ms. Reddy is still working there unethically. The founder of the clinic called to speak with me about the incident and did not offer a refund or any kind of compensation for the harm done by their negligence. She directed me to an online database for therapists and said, "when you use insurance you usually get an inexperienced therapist" and "none of the good ones take insurance." This is classist and offensive. Seleni's cavalier and elitist attitude towards fraud and negligence is dangerous. The Seleni Institute is a wealthy woman's vanity project for the rich and well-heeled. If you are a working person trying to access therapy, expect to be humiliated and abused at Seleni because of your socio-economic status. My insurance company has launched a fraud investigation and I reported the clinic and staff members to the New York State Office of the Professions.

We had such a wonderful experience with this service. The HFA team was incredibly responsive and…read moreproactive in connecting us with those who may be on our night nurse team which allowed for me to chat with each one ahead of time. It was our first time working with a night nurse and the whole experience made us feel at ease and in very good hands. Our night nurse, Janette, was wonderful and made us feel so confident that our newborn was in good hands that we could get some sleep back! Definitely recommend!

I am so glad to have worked with postpartum doulas through Happy Family After. We had peace of mind…read moreworking through this agency, knowing the doulas were vetted. We worked with Janice and Sara who were wonderful! On the admin side, Devon, Sondra, and Sara were all so kind and easy to work with. I was able to use my Carrot benefits with ease.

I LOVED this class so far! My first pregnancy, so I am nervous about it naturally, but going to…read morethis course has really put my mind at ease. The instructor, Maureen is a doula (or was one and also is a nurse I think). She's super friendly and a wonderful character. She has a way of putting us at ease and no judgement! If we want an epidural, fine, if not, fine! The cost is about $320, but it's 3 hours for 5 sessions, I think it's totally worth it! I read the other reviews, and have not had the same bad experiences at all. Will update as we go along!

Summary: Birth preparation class was very informative but…read morea bit expensive. 4 stars. Prenatal breastfeeding class was not a good use of time or money, and the teacher called me a "Dairy Queen" in front of the class instead of answering my question. 2 stars. The birth preparation class with Robin Douthit was comprehensive and made us feel more confident going into the labor experience. Robin had a great deal of experience and shared both her own experiences, and experiences as a doula with us to understand the range of experiences that we could have. The class was taught from the Lamaze perspective, using the 6 Lamaze principles, such as that labor should start on its own and to stay out of the hospital as long as possible. The class didn't take a definitive stance on the question of pain relief. I did get the message that women who don't end up being able to breast feed probably did something wrong, which seems to be an unfair message for a couple of women I know who tried everything and still had to use formula. A class full of first-time parents-to-be would seem like a natural setting for people to bond, but the participants didn't seem interested in getting to know each other. During the class's 10-15 minute dinner break, people would just talk with their spouses. The class cost $300, which was almost double the cost of birth preparation classes at the hospital in Park Slope. As good as it was, it is hard to say that it was worth so much. We learned some NYU-specific information on the session dedicated to the "virtual tour", but I think that I could have gotten that information from just going to their "virtual tour" alone. The lactation class was somewhat informative, but it was not worth $40 and 3 hours of time. The teacher covered breastfeeding very superficially, and spent lots of time showing us the materials in a stapled packet for us to read later, and also told us to buy some books about breastfeeding, 3 of which I already owned after seeing them recommended elsewhere. She spent about 30-45 minutes at the beginning going around the room asking people for their concerns about breast-feeding, and telling us why we shouldn't worry. That seemed like a huge waste of time, and something she could have addressed in the class itself. She spent lots of time telling us the benefits of breastfeeding, which I would assume that most of the class already knew, because why else would we spend $40 to learn how to do it? She was pretty even-handed about the fact that sometimes women aren't able to breast-feed, and it's not their fault, but she also seemed surprised to hear that even women who breastfeed might end up getting osteoporosis. She would not answer questions about pumping. She said pumping questions were best addressed 3 weeks before we went back to work. She promised to send us an email with extra information so that we could contact her with questions about issues like pumping, but never sent that email. She has a real beef with drinking milk. She said that we do not need to alter our diets in most ways (coffee and wine are fine in moderation), but we should consider drinking less milk because our babies may end up being allergic to milk. Cheese is fine, for some reason. She showed us a slide of bloody diapers from milk-allergic babies. I raised my hand and asked whether there was a maximum amount of milk that we should drink. Oddly, she didn't answer my question, but she asked me if I was a "Dairy Queen", and then straight-out called me a "Dairy Queen." That was just inappropriate. She mentioned several times that we're the only species that drinks milk from other animals. We're also the only species that farms and, for that matter, has hospitals and lactation consultants.

We're expecting our first baby in February 2026 and initially felt pretty overwhelmed about where…read moreto start with birth planning. We were even hesitant to take a birth class at all--but we're so grateful we took Lisa Greaves' class. While we're planning a hospital birth, we hope to avoid a C-section if possible, and Lisa's class truly empowered us to feel comfortable and informed about all of our options. We learned about laboring at home longer, pain management strategies both with and without medication, and how to advocate for ourselves throughout the process. By the final session, we felt much more knowledgeable about pre- and postnatal care and genuinely prepared to welcome our baby. We also really appreciated the sense of community and the additional resources the class provides. Can't recommend it enough!

Lisa is a gifted educator on all things childbirth and we're SO happy to have attended her 3 day…read moreintensive in-person classes a few months prior to our due date. I was immediately impressed by Lisa's care and high-touch approach when I saw her thoughtful response to my intake form at the time we registered for the program. And throughout the course, Lisa's wealth of knowledge, passion, and genuine desire to help really carried through. She's also a bright ray of sunshine and we really appreciated her warmth and hospitality in what could feel like a long three day class otherwise. We had snacks and drinks, were able to move around freely, sit on the floor, sit on the yoga ball, there are squatty potties in each bathroom, I mean she literally thought of everything in trying to make this experience as comfortable and smooth for us as possible. With each class, we felt more and more confident and well equipped to welcome our baby and of course the added bonus in this being in-person is that we also loved connecting with other couples that we will continue to stay in touch with. I would highly recommend to any couple who's expecting no matter the kind of birth experience you envision for yourseleves.

Do not go to this school. Honestly, you'd be better off teaching yourself. There are no lectures;…read moreyou're basically shooting in the dark. Also, the teachers are disrespectful. They speak to people like they're children. Save your money and find an apprenticeship. If you really want to learn and be treated with respect- this not the place for you.

Just get a job as a helper/ apprentice, you'll learn this stuff in the field. It feels like there…read moreis too much to go over in just 5 weeks per segment ( 6 segments total ) I was in H-VAC and the first 3 teachers weren't even good. Segment 2 and 3 teachers had attitude problems and loved being smart asses while the first one was a nice man but half of what he taught the other teachers said isn't even needed information. You're basically paying $19,000 to learn shit you can GET PAID to learn on an actual job. I can't talk an other trades in this school but don't bother with H-VAC. Any 5 star reviews you see here are 100% fake and made by a school staff or whatever just to get you to throw 19K at them to waste your time. No you don't NEED this certification the school gives you at graduation to get a job as a helper/ apprentice. You'll get whatever licenses and certifications you need while in the field. Also for 19K the school almost never feels prepared with equipment in the class. Most of the shit is broken, like they don't even bother using YOUR money to be stocked up on what they need to have a good learning experience I DO NOT RECOMMEND H-VAC DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY