Valley Medical Group - Midwifery Program, Montvale

"I had the absolute most amazing care and experience with the midwives. They were kind, validating, comforting, and very on top of the situation. I felt and WAS in great hands! I could not recommend them more!!"

"My experience here started off positive, I was pregnant with my rainbow baby and started doing my scheduled appointments shortly after I found out I was pregnant. I had a miscarriage last year that resulted in doctors pushing a D&C on me, only for me to have bled out 750ml during the surgery. I did so many tests to rule out the cause, but nothing was ever determined. So I shared my experiences and my wishes with the midwives from the beginning on how important a natural birth was for me, as well as the avoidance of using drugs or interventions unless medically necessary. Fast forward, I’m now 33 weeks pregnant and I meet with Jaclyn for another routine appointment. I explain to her that I was weaning myself off of the baby aspirin that I was on since the first trimester (because I was noticing more blood loss than normal when I got a cut on my finger). Plus it was getting down to the wire, and I did not want a reoccurring situation in labor as what had happened to me during my miscarriage. And all of the research I read recommended stopping a baby aspirin at 36 weeks regardless. I was only using it as a preventative measure in the early weeks just incase my first miscarriage had been caused by a blood clot (since doctors still have no idea what caused it). To my surprise, Jaclyn became quite defensive and told me that it was Valley’s hospital policy for all pregnant women to remain on it until birth. I told her it was my decision and that I was not making this choice blindly. She explained that I was going to need to push very hard because my baby was measuring big. I said I’d like to do what we can first with my doula (curb walking, different positions, etc to encourage baby to drop) before resorting to that - because excess pushing increases fatigue and tears. She told me that these things don’t actually help and that if I’m questioning the simple act of pushing, then I’m not going to be a good fit for their practice. I clarified and said that perhaps she misunderstood what I was saying, but she blatantly told me that I have trust issues with the medical industry, therefore she can’t help me in labor if I wanted to ask questions vs blindly ‘following protocol’. I was appalled. I told my husband, and my family and friends couldn’t believe her ‘comply or leave’ attitude. I assumed she was just having a bad day, so I was going to see how things went on our next visit. Not even a week went by when I received a call that Jaclyn and Chris had made the decision to transfer me over to ‘doctors care’ instead because they were going to label me as a ‘high risk’ patient for refusing to take a baby aspirin. My pregnancy had been the picture of perfection, so to suddenly slap a label on me just so they didn’t have to have me as a patient was completely wrong and unlawful medical practice. When I asked why, they said it was because genetic bloodwork (that I did of my own accord and shared with them from years prior) said that I carried the 4g/4g gene, a gene over 25% of the Caucasian population have, and one that I had met with the doctors at Valley to discuss early on, to which they had said that this gene was irrelevant to pregnancies and that no further testing or treatments were necessary. This was complete malpractice. I was kicked out of their practice at 33 weeks pregnant. I emailed them, demanding answers, but they ghosted me. I cried my eyes out, unsure of what I was suppose to do now, but I remembered that there was another midwife who use to work here and had recently left - Kimberly Maher. I called her up in tears, and she welcomed me with open arms. We went over my medical records and she agreed that there was no reason to label me as high risk. Together we birthed at Morristowns Birthing Center, and I had a beautiful natural birth with no medical intervention. Kim was respectful and supportive of my decisions all throughout. And she took me in when VMG abandoned me. I would NEVER recommend this practice again. Especially to anyone who wants a say in their own birth experience."