Dr. Melissa Therese Goedtel, MD

My wife and I saw Dr. Goedtel for most of our first baby’s prenatal visits. Our appointments started out fine, she explained things to us pretty thoroughly. As time went on, our appointments with her got shorter and shorter. It got to the point where we would meet with her for less than 3 minutes. My wife began doing some research on home births and became interested. We found a midwifery practice in Ypsilanti and began seeing them for prenatal visits simultaneously with Dr. Goedtel. We laid out pros and cons of both a home birth with our midwifery professionals versus a birth with Dr. Goedtel in a hospital. We came to the conclusion that we would likely do a home birth but wished to speak it over with Dr. Goedtel to continue our care with her in addition to the midwives. So at our 36 week appointment, my wife went into her meeting with Dr. Goedtel and expressed interest in a home birth. Dr. Goedtel berated her for putting herself and our baby in danger and taking an unnecessary risk… of having a home birth. She even told my wife there was “no way you can give birth without pain medication.” It became very obvious to us that Dr. Goedtel was not able to see through a different lens than she was used to looking through and did not care about my wife’s personal wishes as it pertained to giving birth. We went through with a home birth and my wife gave completely natural birth to a healthy baby boy (NO PAIN MEDICATION WHATSOEVER). Her labor was less than 10 hours and there were no complications. Our boy was immediately placed into his mom’s arms. We then moved and all laid together in OUR own bed within 5 minutes of welcoming our boy into this world. MUCH better than any experience I’ve heard from a hospital birth. I give Dr. Goedtel two stars because she was initially very helpful. However, based on our experience and my wife’s interaction, I would not recommend Dr. Goedtel to any of my family or friends.

Incredibly rude and insensitive to me after I disclosed being a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault. Do not recommend at all.

Dr. Goedtel was wonderful. She kept me at ease with all of my problems and helped me immensely!

My favorite doctor at the practice. Although she is young, I felt she was more competent and caring than most!