Client Testimonials

Nia’s Homebirth

I can’t express what a huge difference Mac and the Philadelphia Midwife Collective have made in my life. I experienced a lot of personal tragedy shortly before finding out I was pregnant, and also very little physical or emotional ease during my pregnancy. There was never a time that I interacted with Mac when I felt like they didn’t have the time to hear about what was going on with me, physically, mentally and emotionally, and with their schedule I’m positive this isn’t because they always had the time. At every opportunity, they encouraged me to listen to my body and respect what it was telling me, and this really set the tone for my birth experience. I truly felt empowered to fully surrender to the task at hand.

While a birthing place does not make birth itself more or less magical, it can affect other factors, including the birthing person’s feeling of and actual safety and comfort, which can impact labor and birth itself. Personally, I have never been comfortable in hospitals. My mind associates hospitals with the constant need to advocate and protect loved ones from a system not created for their care (even when in the presence of caring and competent healthcare workers).

With Langston I knew that I wanted to birth at home. I wanted to have the support that I needed in attendance. I wanted to mitigate the harsh transition into postpartum that I experienced when we brought my oldest home from the hospital. I wanted to feel safe. I wanted to feel empowered. I wanted to feel comfortable. For me this meant that I needed more control over my environment than a hospital could offer, less intervention, more space for birth to just happen.

Thank you for helping me achieve a birth that exceeded my wildest dreams, in the warmth and safety of my own home, with my partner and our doula by my side, and four generations of my family present. It brought me so much joy to spend the first few hours of baby’s life cuddled up in bed with my family. It was exactly what my heart needed. Langston’s birth was such a positive experience for me. I felt so powerful, protected and cared for. Mac, you have truly changed how I view my relationship to healthcare and I am so grateful to have you in our lives.

Em’s Testimonal

I'm a little at a loss for words when I think about the incredible care and support that I received from Mac and Steph at PMC. I mean really, can all queer and gender non-conforming folks please get to work with them? Seriously. They both are brilliant, thorough, trauma-informed, and effortlessly affirming about all sorts of vulnerable elements of pregnancy, birth, and nursing. I felt both medically supported and like I just wanted to become best friends with them -- from what I hear, that's pretty rare. I can't speak enough to how wildly valuable it is to have them in the field, in this community, and as an inextricable part of my family's story.

ALexis’s VBAC Story

My biggest flex this year was doing what the doctors told me I couldn't and shouldn't do. It was advocating for the birth I wanted on my terms. I didn't know my own strength until this very moment you see pictured. After 8 months of going to doctors being told I needed a c section I didn't want and being labeled "high risk" for being overweight, I decided to take my power back and advocate for the birth I wanted . I switched to an awesome midwife named Mac @philadelphiamidwives and I took the steps to do what I knew deep down I could do. This picture is me the moment after I delivered my son with no epidural, on my feet next to my bed, with Mac sitting on the floor catching him as he came earthside...the way you SHOULD be allowed to birth. I did that SHIT & I'm walking into 32 feeling real MAGICAL ready for my next flex and level up. My attitude is different going into this new year of my life. I'm activating all my power & reclaiming all my time!

Happy 32nd birthday to me!