So welcoming and very easy to talk to so happy I switched to her from my last OBGYN. Best decision…read moreI could have made

Five stars are not enough. The Capital Region is SO blessed to have midwife Michelle Doyle. For the…read morerest of my life, no matter how relieved I may be to say goodbye to the Albany area, I will look back and remember how fortunate I was to be cared for throughout pregnancy and childbirth by Michelle. Perhaps she was the reason for our sojourn here. I'll try to keep this brief, but it will be hard because there's so much to say about the woman and our experience with her, and my brain is addled from the sleep deprivation of a new parent. Please bear with me... I always knew that if I had a healthy, low risk pregnancy, I wanted a home birth. Not sure when or why or how the notion got into my head, but it's been with me a long, long time. Of course when the time came, I did my due dilligence re, the facts surrounding the midwifery model of care, safety statistics, etc; and felt certain that it was right for me. Enter Michelle. She has nearly 30 years of experience in hospital, birthing center and home birth deliveries. She has outstanding statistics for everything from transfers to cesareans to tearing, all of which can be seen here: http://www.localcaremidwifery.com. She *thoroughly* explains the whys and hows and risks and benefits of everything you might encounter during your pregnancy and birth and never, never talks down to you, rushes you, or substitutes her judgment for your own. Of course, like any good midwife, she is extremely careful about whom she agrees to attend. You can be sure that if she agrees to take you on as a client, you are in fact a stellar candidate for a home birth. My husband, who despite (because of?) coming from a family of doctors, has a huge amount of anxiety surrounding even routine medical care, even said upon leaving one prenatal appointment, " I always feel so much better after seeing her." And during the birth, which we were both uncertain how he would handle, he stayed calm and engaged because he had such tremendous faith in her judgment and training. As for me, I don't want to bore anyone with a birth story, so I'll just say this- there is a reason that doctors "deliver" babies, and midwives "attend" births. During the birth, I had only the vaguest sense of Michelle as a calm and encouraging presence. I was occupied with the work of bringing our son into the world, and she never forced the attention back to her. I remember a few low and calm "beautiful, beautiful, everything is fine, this is what you have to do to meet your baby, yes, yes, good..." but otherwise she stood back and let me move how and where I wanted, to vocalize the way I needed to, and to close my eyes and shut everyone out when I couldn't handle the extra stimulation. I knew, in whatever small part of my mind that was still capable of logical thought, if she was calm, I really was fine, and that if for some reason things became "not fine," she had the training to manage it. When it was all over we ate a scoop of Cherry Garcia and climbed into our own bed with our baby right next to us (well, on top of us actually), where he belonged. American obstetrics is in a truly sorry state, and current practices endanger women and babies, and undermine things of vital importance (bonding and breastfeeding as well as confidence in your body and your judgment at a time when you most need it) but that's a rant for another day, so I'll leave that alone for now. Suffice it to say, Michelle has our eternal gratitude for the beautiful birth of our son. * I would be happy to answer any questions about Michelle or about our experience with home birth- just message me ETA: Michelle also does Well Woman (gynecological) care.

i had all of my prenatal care at st. mary's hospital and couldn't rave about them enough. everyone…read morethat works there is so nice and knowledgeable, they make you feel at home and comfortable when you are there. this is the reason that i chose this hospital instead of saratoga hospital, which has only been a nightmare every time i have gone there. for my daughter's birth, my midwife, michelle doyle, was so encouraging and supportive the whole time. it is an experience that i will remember and look back on with a smile on my face. everything went beautifully and the staff was so kind and courteous. if i ever have any more kids (which i probably won't!) i would have them at st. mary's hospital! i HIGHLY recommend their childbirth center!!

ive had 3 different expierences at st.marys childbirth center and ALL of them were nightmares!!!!…read morethe first expierience was intensely disapointing and horrifying. it was the births of my neice she was 5 months premature. from moment one they were unsimpathtic to my sisters situation and would not give any information w/o the doctor present. well the doctor didnt show up until after the baby was born and it was too late. they lied to us and told us they wld still try to help my neice, at least try so we knew tht we did all tht we cld. but they did absolutely nothing we felt helpless. and to this day i still wonder if we had gone to albany memorial wld things have been different cause there we know at least the wld have tried.. . . .my second expierience was wen my 1st son was born. .. the pre birth and birth went smoothly but it was afterwards wen things changed. i had an epidural so as u know you cannot gt out of bed for an hour after birth. they told me if i had to go pee i wldnt fel it anyways so i cld just pee in my bed!!! um isnt this something bed pans r made for but the said they didnt have any? what hospital doesnt have bed pains? they were jus too lazy to find me one! n i did feel the wetness in my bed i had to sit in it for an hour!! n then ay 5 AM they wake me n my fiance up so they cld move me to a different room. which i was expecting but u shld not wake ppl up for tht htey shld have just moved at like 10 instead of 5 am......and my 3rd experience was wen i gave birth to my second son this one just tops it off. i gt there at 12 am and i keep saying okay i want an epidural so start calling he guy whose gna put the needle in my back. . . i was 4cm dialated wen i got there and i knew it wld take a few hrs for him to prep n what not so i knew if they had called them then i wld have been rdy to go by the time he got there. but they kept telling me i needed to wait to be more dialated!?! ummmm hello? u only have to be 5cm b4 they give u the pain medicine. and i kept tellin thm jus call him jus call him but they refused!!! soo 6 AM rolls around n at this point my dialation hadnt been checked sience i first got there! so i kept turning my light on and for a good half hr they ignored it my supporter had to leave my side to gt a nurse and the nurses at the main deskkept saying we'll be in shortly n all i wanted was the epidural i didnt careabout wat they were doin. n the ignoring of the light went on for another hr and 1/2. i was fuming with anger but also in agony frm the pain. n then finally someone comes in and i say oo thank god have u called to set up my epidural yet? and do u know what the answer i got was? "ummmm hold on le me check with the nurse" n i said ur not a nurse? she says no im housekeeping checking if u need blankets.. WTF!!! they ignore my bell n then send in housekeeping! so i figure shes goin to gt a nurse or midwife but nooooope the housekeeper comes back in saying well hes jus finishing up on another patient. n at tht point i knew i wasnt goin to gt an epidural i had noo time left at all. i was there for 8 hrs askin for an epidural nonstop n they completely ignore my wishes. n then to make matters worse the midwife comes in to check me and she tells me wut i was fearin all along i was gonna have to do it naturally. dont get me wrong i have nothing against it i jus dont have high pain tolerance. n my mom was in the right to say ' idont understand my daughter was asking for an epidural for hrs and everyone completely ignored her.' as shes sayin this i feel myself go back into little girl mode saying mommy i cant do it crying intencely and scared out of my mind!! n the midwife PAM not sure f her last name loks at me n says i need to get over myself and grow up!!! now although she may have been tellin the truth. . .as a professional she shld not have been talkin ro a woman in labor or any of her patients for tht matter like that, n it was thier fault i was in this position anyways!!! i was angry to say the least! she was rude the whole birth n wen she was finished all she said was i told u u cld do it, umm no actually all u said to me was gt over myself my mom fiance n sister were cheering me on. and then she stormed out of my room. n this last part is prolly what pissed me off the most.and they didnt give my son a sponge bath until 4 pm n i had hiim at 830 am!!! i will never EVER go back again!!!

I've been going to Dr. Ford since 1991. He's a very caring, knowledgeable person. I believe the…read moreproblem (as previously posted by another reviewer) is not with him, it's with "his" staff. There seems to be minimal communication between the front desk people and the rest of the world. The receptionists (every one of them so far) are horribly condescending, impatient, and rude. I've seen them roll their eyes while helping (??) other patients, giggling about others. Very unprofessional. Considering they are the first introduction many people have to this facility, it is a bad representation (you only get one chance to make a good first impression...). Additionally, I have never been on-hold (when I call) for less than 8 minutes. Never. I should state that I'm referring to the Jordan Rd, Troy offices. It was so much better before they moved to this building. Basically, I'm giving only 2-stars because of the reception staff, not the doctors. Although, the nurses call-back could be improved. Takes forever......Personally, I would give Dr. Ford 5-stars. Dr Elacqua 3.

Dr. Ford and his staff are professional and made me feel like part of their family. Was so…read moreimpressed and I would rate them higher than any doctor I have ever been to. Words can't express how grateful I am to dr. Ford and his staff! Awesome, awesome, awesome.

This place is horrible in the way they treat their patients. I had scheduled an appt. which had to…read morebe about a month and a half out which was bad enough then the doctor their decided she was going to take some vacation time so a week before my appt. I get a call telling me all this and offering to reschedule out another 2 months. Then when I asked to be switched to another doctor I was told they didn't know how to do that and that I should look into finding another doctor's office altogether. these people are the absolute worst when it comes to being professional and treating their patients with the respect they deserve and taking the issues they are dealing with serious and they don't do any of this. My dog's veterinarian is more professional than this gaggle of half-ass medical so-called professionals. Don't go here do yourself a favor and find an office where the doctors actually care and treat you with the respect you deserve.

The nurse practitioner, Deidre, is the best. She discusses your health concerns with you rather…read morethan lectures or orders and actually listens to your questions! She called months after a positive pregnancy test just to check on me (we had switched to another practice just due to convenience) and make sure I was in good hands regardless of whether I'd be a return patient. The practice itself schedules last-minute and walk-in appointments on request and is in a convenient location.