Dr. Felice Barnow, Seattle ND, LM, RN?

[pinkgiraffe]

I had an consult appointment with Dr. Barnow today at Seattle NPABC. I got a great vibe from her. I don't want to give birth at home, but wasn't totally thrilled with the room environment at their little birth center.

I have hardly read any reviews about her. Does anyone have positive/negative experiences with her?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!!

[darciedoodle]

I had my first at the birth center and it was fine. Morgan was my midwife that time. The room is a bit small and funky, but it's really all you need. The nice thing they have on site is the tub. I had my 2nd at home with Felice as the midwife and I had scheduled a tub to come but they never made it because they said they never got the page. Both Felice and Morgan are great. I don't think they take on difficult cases, i.e., if you start measuring small or something they might transfer your care to a doctor. You can PM me if you have more specific questions.

[jenneology]

I did a consult with Felice and I did not like what I heard from her. She seemed very medically-minded and not very flexible on informed consent issues. It seemed to me like there were somethings that she just would not let her clients refuse and to me that flies in the face of what informed consent is all about. I was also very not impressed with the birthing room they have set up there and knew that I would be more comfortable at home or finding a different birthing center with a different midwife. Just because its the closest to my house doesn't mean I think its a comfortable place to birth. Have you looked into the birth center in Kirkland yet? I've never heard a bad thing about them or their midwives.

[JanBrady]

I did not enjoy my experience at SNABC for my pregnancy.  In fact, I ended up switching midwives halfway through.  I had a few things that rubbed me the wrong way, but wasn't going to leave based solely on that. Here are those minor annoyances:

1. The front desk is archaic.  They don't check their email often enough, so it's hard to set/change appointments online (which is important if you have a somewhat hectic schedule).

2. They could not open PDF files that I sent them, bc of their old computer.

3. They could not email me standard Forms - they could only fax them to me. Who has a fax machine at home these days? If you do, this won't be an issue for you.

4. At one of my first trimester visits, going in VERY sick and nauseaus, the receptionist decided to inform me that "some women feel the way I do for the entire 9 months." THANK YOU. NOT what I wanted to hear, after vomitting for 3 days straight and feeling like ASS.

So, as I mentioned, these things irked me, but I would not have left based solely on this criteria. I would work around these minor office-related annoyances if the fit was right.

As for the birth room, it is dark and cramped.  Since I didn't actually give birth here, I can't speak to what it would be like, but based on looks alone, I'd say no.  Also, if they're doing 2 births at once, the 2nd laboring mom is put into the smaller birth room, which is basically an office with a futon, and does not have a tub or bathroom.

As for care, my urine was never checked.  Turned out, I did have a bladder infection at 15 weeks (which another dr had checked for me, routinely).

I did the sequential screening test, but apparently my numbers were input incorrectly, which elevated my risk number. I didn't find this out until after my amnio.  >:(

There were a couple of other things that happened that I would say are too personal to write here, and also might be a "fluke" based on the fact that it is my personal experience, however based on those, I would say that overall, personally, I do not think that the care here is Top Notch.

In short it's probably just fine for a very low risk, very low anxiety pregnancy with minimal needs/expectations from care, but in my opinion, there are too many other up-to-date midwives and Birth Centers in the Seattle area to settle for SNABC.