Strickhouser, Margaret CNM

I started my pregnancy out with a traditional OB/GYN and started looking into water births. I found Margaret, one of the only CNM's in Atl offering water births. Every visit I had with Margaret in the office was cold, uninformative, and rushed. 3 days short of being two weeks past my due date, she scheduled a monitoring session to make sure the baby was okay. Margaret showed up two hours late for this. By the end of the appointment, we had decided it was best to induce labor and she sent me strait to the hospital. Upon my first meeting with Margaret, she assured me that she would be there every step of the way during delivery. I arrived at the hospital at 1pm and Margaret didn't show up til 10:30pm!! The nurses were beyond aweful to me. Wouldn't let me get up and walk, wouldn't let me move on the bed, wouldn't let the lights be turned out, wouldn't get a birthing ball for me etc.. When Margaret finally arrived in my room I burst into tears thinking everything would be okay and she would tell those nurses what they're supposed to be letting me do. I was wrong.. Margaret stayed with me long enough to break my water (something she preached against) and then left the room with the promise of a birthing ball to sit on. When she didn't return in the next half hour, I found out that she had retreated to the doctor's lounge to take a nap! I asked every 20min or so about when she was coming back and all I got were "I don't know"'s. When it was time for delivery, she was talking and hugging the nurse like they were all buddy buddy and totally ignored me until I started pushing at 3:30am. After my daughter was born(half an hour later), she disappeared yet again to God only knows where and didn't return until morning just to ask me if I was "okay". She then promised me that she would be writing a message to the nurses to tell them not to disturb me during the night for any reason or during the day unless it was per my request. She did not write that note and the nurses were buzzing me EVERY 20 minutes and they weren't even calling me by the right name!



I got woken up several times by the nurses and they even came for my daughter at 3am to take her for her heel prick! I did not receive another visit from Margaret while I was there and did not return to her for my follow up exam.



Stay far, FAR away from this so called CNM!