I feel very lucky to have found Homestyle Midwifery and St. Luke’s. I got everything I wanted: undivided attention during my labor and delivery, advice on how to deal with my labor at home, suggestions for how to take care of myself before I went into labor as well as the type of people who would be beneficial to have with me during labor. This experience was very important to me and went exactly the way I wanted it to. I was calm, rested and excited as I went through every stage. I would recommend Homestyle to everyone I know for an extremely satisfying birthing experience which, in my opinion, is the most important experience of a woman’s life.

Homestyle Midwifery made my journey to motherhood an organic worthwhile experience. Yeshi was able to work with my needs without any pressure. We would set up appointments that best suited my schedule since I was working full time. The service at Homestyle Midwifery is excellent because your midwife is always there when you need her, before, during and after the birth.

My pregnancies and birthing experiences with Homestyle Midwifery were wonderful. Yeshi delivered my two beautiful children, now 1 and 4 years old. She is extremely knowledgeable in the physical and emotional aspects of pregnancy and child birth. Using her skill as a trained medical professional, she very gently and lovingly coached me and my husband through it all. I loved how she worked with the hospital staff to enable me to have no unnecessary medical interventions in my births.. She is now a member of our family and we love her dearly.

When we found out we were pregnant, we knew we wanted a midwife to deliver our baby.After much research within the birthing community, we chose Homestyle Midwifery at St. Lukes. They had been resoundingly recommended to us time and time again by a multitude of people, including health care professionals and former clients. From our initial contact with Homestyle, our anxiety and insecurity were put to ease by their calm, caring, and understanding demeanor.  We discovered right away why Homestyle carried such an overwhelming reputation.  Their approach to childbirth, especially towards parents our age (35), was that our pregnancy was natural and most of all, normal.  .... In the final 24 hours, our midwives never left our side during our long struggle and gave us the strength to continue on when we were ready to give up. We were never alone as they guided us through every difficult turn, always respecting our choices.  Our delivery room was filled with good feelings, stories, jokes, and laughter. We appreciated Homestyle’s respect for our wishes over our birthing experience.  Without their expertise and support we would have ended up having an entirely different birthing experience from what we hoped.

Yeshi was at the birth of my only daughter, Ayumi. At a certain key moment when I was frenzied with pain, Yeshi said, calmly and clearly, "Rest between the contractions." It took a few contractions before I could even understand what she said. But then, I repeated it to myself. And I started to find the spaces between the contractions-- the troughs between the waves. I rested. It was a wonderful discovery, to feel a profound quiet in the midst of all that energy and lack of control. And because of that rest, I could give birth to Ayumi five hours later, without any medical intervention.

We were so very impressed and comforted by the birthing facilities at St. Luke's… Homestyle gave us personal, in-depth, comprehensive involvement, coupled with the security of state-of-the-art medical resources on hand should the need arise. What St. Luke's also gave us was the comforting, personal touch of our midwife, who - from our first prenatal visit with her -- was never too busy to see us or return our calls. This amazing woman impressed us more than any of the doctors we saw prior to switching to St Luke's. Aside from her vast knowledge and great skill, she hasn't lost site of the fact that truly effective healthcare is about addressing the entire individual, not just the medical issue at hand. She got to know us on a personal level, catering our birth plan to our particular needs and wishes. The same goes for all the nurses on your labor and delivery staff. They were very skilled, with amazing bedside manner and calming presence. We forgot we were in a hospital! If only all health care could be the same! My wife and I are so very convinced that it is because of this personal touch that the birth of our baby went so well. It allowed my wife to feel safe and comfortable. The end result was a problem-free pregnancy and record-time birth. You have a very unique thing going there!

Homestyle Midwifery provided an invaluable service to our family by allowing us to plan the birth we wanted and felt comfortable with. Their knowledge of the birthing experience, along with medical standards at St, Lukes Hospital, enabled us to have a full picture of the options available for us.

When I tell people about the arrangement we had with Yeshi and St. Luke’s, they immediately recognize the value of our choices. Among the several new mothers that I took labor preparation classes with, it seems that I had the lowest stress labor

As first-time parents, we were giddy to receive the combination of support and personalized care afforded through the unique arrangement that Homestyle enjoys with the hospital. We feel strongly that the innovative service that you offer could (and should) be expanded; it also has the potential to serve as a point of pride for the hospital and as a model to inspire other maternity centers to reach new levels of excellence in patient care.

The support in the room was incredible – and the birth tub and futon were well used and greatly appreciated. Women should never receive anything but this hands-on care. In addition I wanted to comment on the rest of our experience at St. Luke’s. Everyone we had contact with had the same caring passion for birth- Dr. Norrell, the labor and delivery nurse, the lactation consultant, and the pediatrician