I just had my first appointment with Dr. Thomme of Borgess Women's Health after seeing a different…read moregynegologist for 20 years. I was having menopausal issues and felt I needed a new prospective. Dr. Thomme and the staff at Borgess Women's Health were all very helpful. I got answers that I have been searching for. She and her staff took their time and I felt that they understood me better than any doctor I've visited in a long time. I would highly recommend their practice!!!

In the process of switching practices, while my FMLA coverage was active, I called Sedgwick to…read morecheck to see if I could take time off work while my claim was active. They said that was fine as long as it was pregnancy related. Then I called Borgess Women's Health and spoke to Paula regarding the same question. She is the one that processes all the medical related paperwork. She told me yes I could take time off as long as it was related to the pregnancy and she also said that in some cases they could backdate certain things as long as it pertained to the pregnancy. So, assuming I was okay, I took a few days off prior to meeting with Doctor Winter that same week. When I finally met with Doctor Winter I told him I had my FMLA paperwork and he told me he couldn't backdate anything and that it was against Borgess's policies. I told him that I would lose my job because of this misinformation and be fired for an attendance violation and he said there was nothing he could do. I pressed and said, "But it's my JOB." And he asked me, "What does your husband do?" I think my jaw nearly hit the floor. Not only was it presumptuous to assume both me and my spouse were working but I was insulted too. My husband had been in search of work for the past year and hadn't found any leads. I explained this to Doctor Winter and it was painful to do so. I then asked about the paperwork and he said he didn't think I would even qualify for FMLA. I told him that in the state of MI pregnancy is a temporary disability and he said he'd fill it out and see but he said he couldn't excuse the time I had taken off because he hadn't seen me prior for those issues. I argued they were the same issues he was seeing me for that day and he said they weren't pregnancy related and I'd have to start over with a new claim and submit to my neurologist (I am epileptic and I have lumbar arthritis both of which are affected by the pregnancy). A couple of weeks later I received my FMLA decision in the mail and sure enough, my leave was granted only from the day I saw him on. So I lost my job. As if that wasn't insult to injury enough, I had to fall back to my secondary income (self-employment) as primary and it wasn't nearly as much as I made at my old job. As if I wasn't tired enough from the pregnancy I had to work three times harder to make much less. Then since I knew I'd be diabetic again with this pregnancy, I had to keep pushing off my appointment with diabetic ed because I did not have the gas money to get there to and from. I asked about gas mileage reimbursement and Borgess said they did not offer any. Today I spoke with nurse Kim after finally making it to my appointment yesterday with the dietician, and she said she would call me back right away regarding an insurance issue and the script for my insulin. All day I waited for a call back. Finally I called the pharmacy and they said a script had not been sent in. So I called Borgess back and got a different nurse. She called over to Kim to see if she wanted to speak to me about my issue and her reply was a callous and flat, "About what?" Which naturally offended me that had forgotten after I had told her my fasting blood sugar this morning was a whopping 268. Then when she finally got on the phone with me, I asked her what was going on and she said she was waiting for the doctor to approve the script because he was tending to patients all day. I told her it only takes like five minutes to submit electronically to the pharmacy and I didn't understand why I couldn't just get a dosage so I could at least use my daughter's insulin today until I could get mine tomorrow (my daughter is type one diabetic) and the insulin they wanted me on were the same ones she used. The nurse said she "wasn't at liberty" to give me a dosage but that whatever the dietician recommended Doctor Winter had to approve. I told her I was concerned about waiting longer and the effects it would have on my baby, and Kim told me callously that "Well, two hours won't really make a difference after all this time" (referring to the fact that it took me so long to be seen with the dietician which really irritated me given what I had already gone through with them and the financial damage they had done to me). So I waited until 4:45pm and called again to see what the status was. The operator at the front desk said to please wait on hold so she could check to see what was going on. I waited for 29 minutes and finally gave up, assuming they had left me on home and went home because my call had ran past 5pm. So I called the pharmacy and double-checked on the script and they naturally said the insulin wasn't in yet. I am ready to cry. This is so unprofessional. Three years ago I would have said Borgess Women's Health was the best place for pregnancy and delivery because I had my son there but now I am so unbelievably angry I am ready to snap. Borgess doesn't care about their patients at all.

This is a long-overdue review of Kayleigh's lovely service. If you are looking for a compassionate,…read morenon-biased, supportive doula, then Kayleigh is your go-to person. I say it from the perspective of being a minority and that none of my immediate circle of friends have hired a doula to assist their births. Adding a doula to my birth team is by far the best decision I have made. Here is how our story began. My husband and I were expecting our 2nd one in the midst of a raging pandemic. We don't have family around so the hospital policy limiting one person to accompany the birthing person urged us to search for a doula to support my birth while my husband staying home with our older one. As soon as we connected with Kayleigh, her energy calmed us down. We know at the moment that Kayleigh is the person we would want to be at birth. Kayleigh supported all the decisions we made as we pivoted to a home birth at 36 weeks. My goals were to have a VBAC and be with our older one throughout the birth. She provided the resources I needed from interviewing a midwife, a pain coping mechanism (boy did the mindful hypnobirthing work to ease the pain!), and a calming presence anchoring my birth. She was always there. Like many others have shared their birth stories, unfortunately, birth in the United States of America is highly controlled. Pregnancy is treated as a business despite the birthing family's wishes. Doctors and media filtered information that they want pregnant women to believe. I am so glad that we hired a doula who unravels many aspects of birth. Women can give birth without an epidural. Women can have a safe VBAC even in a home setting. All we women need is a firming voice that empowers us to make the decision that supports each of our unique families.

Kayleigh is a godsend. That should say everything. But I will explain…read more.. We started this pregnancy at Cedars Sinai and at every point along the way, they used fear tactics to coax us into their plethora of tests. Words like stillborn. Constant reminder of risk of miscarriage. The reiterating that c-section might happen. why they lead with negative and treated my wife as a car to mechanically fix cause it was broken, baffled me and pissed me off. i felt angry and hopeless. We knew we needed help. I had read the Birth Partner and knew about the value of doulas and midwives. At just before 32 weeks, we interviewed Doulas. Kayleigh was the only one to come over and her energy and love was present from the moment we met her. I felt very vulnerable knowing I had failed to give my wife the experience of having Kayleigh sooner in the pregnancy experience. And grateful she was in our lives now. Considering the hospital charged our insurance almost $30,000 so far for exams, blood tests, genetic text, 2 ultrasounds, and an amniocentesis and we felt horrible about having a child. Kayleigh came over for free and told us how she could be there for us for the labor and a couple meetings before and for postpartum support...we felt human again. Not like a broken car. Pregnancy was treated as a blessing for the first time for us, not a disease to be treated. we found the Del Mar Birth Center and Mothership / Kayleigh Harrigan close to the 3rd trimester and switched over. This began our pleasant journey to a birth we never knew existed. It certainly never felt possible at Cedars and without an ally like Kayleigh. I'll speak of 1 story. We get to Del Mar Birth Center. It's 7am after a night of contractions. Sarah, my wife, exits the car and Kayleigh, who was there before us, held her. (Wearing a mask, cause now we were in the full blown Covid pandemic) without words, they swayed together and my wife had a contraction in the parking lot. She felt safe. She was calm. One of those most beautiful things I've ever seen. It was like Kayleigh spoke the language of birth. forget about that Kayleigh shot our birth photos and I was phone free. Forget about that Kayleigh helped guide me to best serve my wife during the labor. Forget about that Kayleigh held Sarah's hips together as she yelped "my back, my back!" she did it all with grace and ease. God bless this world for bringing Kayleigh into it. Thank you Kayleigh for being born. Thank you for making pregnancy and labor beautiful again. For making me feel confident to help my wife. For helping bring our beautiful boy Julian into this world. jonathan

Brenda and her team are amazing! She is knowledgable, organized and whole-heartedly believes in and…read moreloves what she is doing. As a first time mama I was nervous and she made sure to be fully present for my lengthy labor. I highly recommend her care!

What a joy it is to write a review for Brenda and the entire process from prenatal to postpartum…read morecare that she has provided for our family. We are first time parents, and from our very first visit with Brenda we knew this was going to be a special journey based on the professional and compassionate interaction. My husband's questions about home births were put at ease during our first consultation with Brenda, and now we quite frequently discuss and share with our friends and family just how in awe we are of her wisdom, patience, and expertise in her craft of midwifery. It is apparent that this is her true calling in life, and as her clients we are richly blessed with the experience of working with her. Our birth story was a bit unconventional, and Brenda and her assistant skillfully navigated what was necessary to help our daughter get into the optimal position and ultimately be born without complication or unnecessary stress. After birth, my husband was able to bond with our daughter while Brenda skillfully and compassionately addressed the suturing I needed -- at three in the morning, no less. It was so nice to be able to stay in our own home immediately after giving birth, and on top of that we were also able to have all the newborn care completed at home when Brenda returned the day after birth. We are so thankful for the care, friendship, education, and spiritual encouragement that Brenda has provided and continues to provide for us. We will dearly miss the appointments and conversations, but we hope to have her assist us in the future if we have more children, God willing. We whole-heartedly recommend More Than Birth for anyone opting to have a home birth. Thank you, Brenda and Belinda for your care.

We were so excited to find a birth house but it was nothing but headaches. From the horrible…read morecommunication from the scheduling lady, Rhiannon, she would schedule visits in person when they were supposed to be virtual. She also told us we still needed to pay but we paid everything weeks before and just forgot to look at the invoices. I wanted to take home my placenta, but had to get transferred after birth due to high blood pressure and Rhiannon never told the home nurse to grab it when she was at the birth house. I really wanted it for the day after my delivery. The communication was so so frustrating and unprofessional. One of most frustrating things, was we never got our superbill and I picked a higher deductible plan for my insurance to get more money back... Still so disappointed and if i was still in MI, i woulnt recommend them. They also miss spelled my fiancée name on the birth certificate, when its the same as my sons and his is spelled correctly. Quality of care was okay.

My first home birth .... I was never comfortable with my midwife .... They messed up on a lot of…read morethings ... I was soooo low on iron so they were supposed to schedule me with infusions come to find out they messed up my insurance so I had to figure that out on my own and started the infusions way later than I should have .... I also had to schedule my own 20 week anatomy scan because they never did ... for being more "holistic" few days before my due date I had to take a covid test so I did and it was not positive but my midwife said the test showed I was "possibly exposed " to covid so she wanted me to do birth center instead of my home which screwed everything up for me .. I was just surprised that covid was such a big deal .... I ended up giving birth on my own having my husband deliver my baby at home ... paid 900 for a doula which I never used ....

I was completely and utterly terrified to give birth, but I was pregnant, so it needed to be done…read more A friend recommended Birth Kalamazoo, and I'm so glad she did. At first, I didn't think I needed a doula because I wanted a hospital birth with a doctor and ALL the pain meds they could give me. But after talking to some friends and exchanging emails with Jessica, the owner, I realized that a doula could still support me despite the fact that I wasn't planning on a natural birth with a midwife. After I reached out to request a doula, Jessica set up an appointment for me and my husband to meet one. She made it clear that this was to see if we would be a good fit, and it was totally acceptable to decide we weren't. And that was great because while I'm sure she was totally competent, we didn't feel comfortable with her. When I relayed this to Jessica with some reasons why, she said it wasn't a problem and set up a meeting with a different doula. This is when we met Teresa, and she was wonderful. After we officially hired Teresa, in addition to the first casual meeting, we had two meetings to discuss what I was looking for, draft a general birth plan, and answer any questions I had. I had tons. When it all went down, Teresa was a calming presence. My husband and I had never been through any of it before, so having an expert there, advocating for us and helping us through was tremendously helpful. Teresa also did a follow up appointment and provided us with a timeline of what happened when--it was great because everything was a blur for us.