I used Cara for my second birth (and Sakina O'Uhuru for my first) and I wish I could recommend either of them. The prenatal care with Cara was not what I expected nor what I had experienced before. She was often late and her secretary would call all the time trying to make me come to her office instead of what we agreed upon when we hired her- that all visits be at my home. Not only did she want the visits at her office, but apparently they were to be "group visits". Who knows, but I wasn't interested at all and the nagging I got from the office really was negative and made me feel bad. Then, when I was having a long prodromal labour she was dismissive and rude, even when I was on the verge of tears after being told for the 5th nigt in a row to take ambien instead of working towards getting into active labour. She did respect my desire for no testing in the beginning, but brought up GBS 3 visits in a row even when I asked her not to even bring it up again- and she used a story about how she had lost a baby to it recently, which was a serious head-trip for me and made me doubt myself and my choices. She was very hands-off during my waterbirth, which was great. I could tell she wanted to really DO something though and I had to actually remove her hand from my body. I don't like to be touched in labour. In my opinion, she has become too busy since her movie and book.
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I have since become friends with several of the homebirth midwives in nyc as I became a doula and remained friends with my doula.... who used Marcy for both of her births. If I still lived in NYC I would go with Kristen Leonard though- we just clicked. It really is so personal. I didn't like Marcy over the phone and cancelled her appointment to come meet us at our place in manhattan- she was not comfortable with my stating that I wanted no testing and didn't seem to understand my birth philosophy. But, I know a lot of people who like her that have gone with her as well as Joan.
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Just my personal opinions/experiences. My birth with Cara was in 2008, so maybe things have changed for the better.Â
