We decided to join Homestyle for the birth of our second child. I wanted a more supportive environment to promote a natural birthing experience. After looking into various options, my husband and I decided that Homestyle was the perfect fit for us. I was particularly excited to experience the birthing tub. Unfortunately, I never got to use it because our daughter could not wait to enter the world. She was born after an intense but quick 5 hour labor in the bathroom of our new house only 2 days after we moved in. My husband literally "caught" her after 2 pushes. Her 2 year old sister was asleep upstairs.

Yeshi was so supportive once we made it to St Luke's via ambulance. She was very kind and nurturing when dealing with the hemhorrhaging that came with such a quick birth. It helped me stay calm in what was a scary situation. Everything about my postnatal stay at St. Luke's was great. I'm glad I made the choice to go with Homestyle.

We moved to San Francisco from New York in the beginning of Naomi's third trimester. Floating without much community, about to experience the greatest transformation of life - from being someone's child to being someone's parent - we were blessed to find Homestyle. Yeshi, Hokhmah, Cynthia, and Michelle offered thorough, kind, and truly individualized prenatal care. We found support - and new friends - in the Homestyle community. And Yeshi guided Naomi through the birth itself with wisdom and grace, helping Naomi give our daughter Eva the gift of a natural and peaceful entrance to the world. We could not have felt more at home.

I want to express my sincerest support, enthusiasm, and gratitude for Homestyle Midwifery in association with St. Luke’s Hospital.

When I found out that I was pregnant, I asked a few friends for recommendations for an OB/Gyn in the East Bay where I lived, and I found myself in a very mainstream medical practice with a rate of caesarians of around 30%. Despite numerous conversations with my OB, I felt like my desire to avoid medical interventions and have a natural birth barely registered with her, and I was increasingly under the impression that my desires would have little sway at the hospital where I was assigned to give birth.

The first time I looked at the Homestyle website, tears came into my eyes, and I knew that I had found a ‘home’ that would recognize and support my desire for a natural birth.

The midwives at Homestyle do not treat pregnancy and birth like medical conditions that they want to ‘relieve you from,’ but important rites of passage in a woman’s life. This was and is how I felt about my pregnancy and birth and I wanted a care provider who shared those same values. Homestyle’s association with St. Luke’s Hospital was also an important factor in birthing with Homestyle. As this was our first child, my husband and I wanted the safety net of hospital care in case of a medical emergency.

Part of what makes Homestyle so incredible is the quality of care that the midwives and staff provide to their patients. At each of my appointments, I knew that the midwife I was meeting with was taking the necessary time to recognize and meet my own unique needs – something increasingly hard to find in today’s medical environment. That same philosophy and approach continued once my labor began. The midwives ensured that I was able to ‘birth on my terms’ so that I was not rushed into unnecessary medical interventions.

I gave birth to my daughter, Hanora, on October 4th, 2006. It was a natural birth, just as I had hoped. I could not have predicted the many twists and turns of its events, but I felt completely supported by the midwives who attended to me throughout my labor. I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for their work because I don’t know that I could have given birth the way I did without them.

During and after my labor, I saw first-hand the tireless dedication and incredible commitment the midwives at Homestyle have for their patients. I would say that ‘I don’t know how they do it,’ but for the fact that the work they do is sacred, and I hope that plays some role in inspiring them to keep going despite the long hours and physical demands of attending to a woman in labor.

The care and service that the midwives at Homestyle Midwifery provide is amazing and important. I recommend Homestyle without hesitation to any woman seeking a holistic birth experience or who chooses to avoid unnecessary medical interventions. I hope that St. Luke’s Hospital recognizes what an asset Homestyle Midwifery is to St. Luke’s Hospital.

My husband Westy and I decided to attend Homestyle Midwifery’s open house after learning about it through a prenatal yoga teacher training. Over the months, we saw the hospital room on the open house day, experienced weeks of supportive home meetings with midwives, practiced envisioning a positive birth, and finally drove to St. Luke’s Hospital where we worked together on hands and knees and in the water. We breathed together for over eighteen hours. My body and mind sustained movements and resting like never before. I was amazed to go in and out of a truly natural trance of waking, working, sleeping, and dreaming. The strength and resourcefulness of midwife Cynthia, Westy, and doula Star helped turn Chloe from the position of occipital posterior to anterior. Westy was able to be as close to me and Chloe the entire time, especially during the last hour when I birthed Chloe while in the side-lying position with my foot on Westy’s shoulder. I would do it all again with the help of Westy, a doula, and any of the Homestyle midwives: Yeshi, Cynthia, and Hohkmah. We appreciated the tender postnatal visits of all three midwives. I felt nurtured and empowered to move into parenthood.

At 32 weeks, admittedly after reading Ina May, I had an unsettling feeling about my plan to birth at one of the highly rated local hospitals. In a leap of faith, I switched to Homestyle. Right away the experience there was quite different. Appointments weren’t rushed, the midwives got to know me and through group meetings I got to know other moms’-to-be who I would see at the clinic office. But now that I’ve given birth I know the real difference for me was in what happened during and immediately after my 19 hour labor. My labor went very smoothly right up to being fully dilated and effaced. And then I stalled and stalled. The baby wasn’t moving down and after 12 hours of active labor, I was exhausted. My attending midwife, Hokmah, never uttered the words “failure to progress.” Instead, she and my doula never stopped encouraging me and assuring me I had come very far. Later, we discussed what to do to get this baby moving. We decided to break the bag and to do some hip opening exercises. Those exercises were the last thing I wanted to do, but they worked, the baby moved down and I was able to start pushing. Within an hour the baby was born on the birthing stool and immediately placed on my stomach. I was amazed and relieved. The story doesn’t stop there though because I was hemorrhaging and I had torn slightly and would need stitches. Here is where I really give Hokmah credit. She stayed calm even as she worked quickly to stop the bleeding. Still holding my baby I got onto the bed, not even aware of the urgency of the situation. The room stayed calm while my baby nursed for the first time and Hokmah got the bleeding under control without ever alarming me. As for the stitches, I never thought getting stitches could be so pleasant. The calm atmosphere continued, my son was on my chest as me, my husband and my birth team chatted into the night.

The arrival of our son, Henry, was somewhat epic – I went through a 2 1/2 day induction process and about 25 hours of actual labor. It was indeed exhausting and took what seemed like every ounce of energy I had…The end result, a healthy baby, and the love he is continually bringing to me and my partner Bailey, is more than worth it! We would not have been able to do this, nor reflect so positively, without the incredible support and guidance provided by Homestyle Midwifery, our doula (and her backup), and the labor & delivery nurses at St. Luke’s. We switched to Homestyle rather late in my pregnancy (at 32 weeks), and this was the exact right decision. Homesyle is the best – definitely know that they are smart, informed, positive, caring, and strong.

We were really well taken care by Homestyle at St Luke’s Hospital and all of the people we met were so nice and knowledgeable. We felt supported at all the different times there were to make decisions about the birth. We were really informed and felt connected to our own birth experience... We loved being in a small hospital where we were able to get to know the care givers and were so impressed with their dedication. We felt so grateful to be working with Yeshi. We feel we had the best birth experience possible. It was a week filled with love and care.

My experience with Homestyle Midwifery was truly amazing, they made my pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experience one that my daughter Freya truly deserved. From the beginning of my pregnancy, I knew that i wanted my child to be delivered by someone that I felt a connection to and not just a care provider that I would see for 3 minutes at an appointment that I waited an hour for. From the very first time that I met Yeshi Cythnia and Olivia I felt welcomed and encircled with care and understanding. I had planned for a natural childbirth taking a 12 week bradley class and this is one of the other reasons that I chose Homestyle, knowing that they would assist the birth process in a gentle, wise and loving manner, which they did...

At the end of the labor though, knowing that Yeshi, my doula, my husband and I had done everything possible to deliver freya vaginally, we all agreed that a c-section was the only option. Within 20 minutes I had my beautiful baby in my arms and nursing. In the days that followed my heart, mind and body transformed into a new mother and Cynthia, Yeshi, and Olivia were always there to provide and ear and heart to listen, guide and comfort as needed. My daughter is nearly 10 months old and when I think of the day she was born, tears of love and happiness well up in my eyes knowing that Yeshi, Cynthia and Olivia and Dr. Norrell) all made it the most amazing day of my life. They are the best!

I simply cannot imagine having given birth to our baby any other way than with the comfort and hands-on compassion of Homestyle. The midwives felt like family with their full-time availability and always-on information resources. At every turn, they catered to every need of the entire growing family, completely nourishing our emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Without hesitation, I would recommend them to any woman who wants to feel supported and directive in her pregnancy, labor, and delivery.

Rachael was induced because she ruptured her bag of water at 36 weeks without going into labor herself. Her first dose of Cervidil was placed at 9 PM on Sunday, after being blessed by Yeshi. Then our friend Joey (acupuncturist extraordinaire) came to St. Luke’s to place some labor-stimulating needles. Rachael sorta slept - too excited to meet the baby boy - and at about 3 AM, the contractions started. A few hours later, Cynthia placed another dose of Cervidil. The contractions started coming harder and more frequent and active labor really began. Rachael's blood pressure went up a little bit - probably because of the stress of labor - and she got scared that her labor was going to be complicated. With wonderful support from our doula-friend Amy B and further acupuncture support from Joey, Rachael was able to relax and labor in full-on zen mode for many hours, eventually progressing to 7cm dilated at 5pm, followed by intense beautiful laboring in the tub. She started to feel like she had to push. Cynthia asked her to put a finger in her vagina and tell us what she found. What she found was a baby head, not so far from the outside. She got out of the tub (begrudgingly), pushed maybe 4 times, and delivered from a standing position on the futon. Riley Isaac Newfield was born at 8:23PM on Monday May 8, 2006 with cord wrapped all over his body they had to cut it twice. We are forever grateful to Homestyle Midwifery for helping us have a birth that was magical, powerful, and utterly gorgeous. The St. Luke's nursing staff was amazing - at one point, getting on hands and knees to monitor Rachael while she was in child's pose... We're living in Boston now where hospital births have nothing on the Homestyle experience.