Avalon – A Center For Women’s Health

I delivered with Avalon at Morristown hospital in April 2015. I chose the midwives for a few reasons: I wanted to avoid unnecessary interventions during birth; I wanted a different level of care and attention during my pregnancy than what I was getting at my OBGYN office;
I wanted to labor and possibly deliver in a tub.
Overall, I was pleased with my experience at Avalon. My baby was born healthy and, in general, I got more attention from the midwives at my appointments than what I was getting with my doctor. Lisa delivered me and she did a *great* job. There were a few hiccups that I feel obligated to mention — I think it could help others have a better experience with this practice.
At my 35 week checkup, Kim was feeling my belly and said she felt that the baby was breech. She made a recommendation for an ultrasound to confirm and I readily agreed. It took almost two weeks to get an appointment, so I was back at Avalon for my 36^th week appointment a few days before the ultrasound. This time my appointment was with Donna. It was my third time seeing her. I knew many people had issues with her from reading the Unilocal page and from talking to others in the natural birth community. In my previous appointments with her I had no issues. She has a bit of a blunt, unpracticed way with patients, but it didn’t bother me. Nothing she had said was rude or careless. Anyway, at 36 weeks Donna felt my belly and assured me that the baby wasn’t breech. I felt relieved but still kept my appointment for an ultrasound. As it turns out, baby was indeed breech. I wasn’t angry at Donna — but I was a little surprised that she had been so confident and ended up being wrong. I had an ECV to turn the baby (Dr. O performed it and was wonderful) and it went perfectly.
At almost 42 weeks pregnant, I had been out of work for two weeks. My maternity leave was dwindling and I was experiencing a significant when walking. I had tried every natural method to induce (sex, primrose oil, enemas, TONS of walking, bouncing on a ball for what felt like an eternity, pineapple, spicy food, acupuncture, etc) I went in for what turned out to be my final appointment and saw Lisa. I told her I was ready for this to be done and wanted to explore my options for inducing. I did sense a bit of judgement from her. «Your baby is not ready,» she told me. Which made me feel terrible and selfish for wanting to get labor started. I also felt there was no way that could be true. I was «overdue» and knew that everything was fine with the baby. So I told Lisa that *I* felt ready and she suggested inducing with a foley catheter that night.
When I got to Morristown for the induction, they put me in a room without a bath tub. One of the main reasons I went to Avalon was so I could labor in the water. I was told that because I was being induced, I couldn’t have a tub room yet. Once labor got going, I could be moved to a tub room. Sounded reasonable to me. The midwife who was on duty that night (I forget her name) was completely unfamiliar with the foley catheter. She kept playing around with it, trying to figure out how to inject the saline. A nurse from Morristown ended up having to help her.
Fast forward to active labor around 6 hours later. Lisa is on duty. We call several times for a nurse or for Lisa to come to the room as my contractions were getting much closer together and I was having bloody show. I wanted to get into a tub asap. No one ever came to take us to the tub room. My birth preferences had clearly not been communicated to the Morristown staff. By the time Lisa got to my room, I begged for an epidural. I got one within ten minutes and four hours later delivered a beautiful, healthy baby boy. It wasn’t the birth of my dreams, but I was pleased that things went well with delivery.
4 weeks after delivery, my husband was worried I was bleeding too much so he took me to Avalon for a checkup. Upon entering the room, Donna said «I thought you only had a 1 degree tear.» I felt embarrassed, like I was being a wimp for coming in with the bleeding concern. Everything ended up being fine, but I never went back for my 6 week appt. Why bother?
A final note: The Morristown hospital nurse who was present for my birth got very pushy during delivery. I could definitely sense some friction or territoriality between her and Lisa. The nurse was in full on medical birth mode, and Lisa did what she could to hold the nurse back. However, when it came time to push, the nurse kept yelling at me, «GET ANGRY! PUSH! GET ANGRY» and I wish I had been present enough to tell her to be quiet. Why would I want to be angry? I had been dreaming about this moment for a long time. Things like this are beyond Avalon’s control, but you should know that if you deliver at the hospital, you may experience some push and pull between the midwifery approach and the western medicine approach.

When my husband and I decided to start a family, I started to look for a practice that supports natural birthing and waterbirth. In the North Jersey there are only 2 midwives groups that meet the criteria. I met with Joanne Cunha back in 2013 to ask a few of my concerns before committing to Avalon. I was pleased with the interview so I stood with them.
I had a few hiccups with some of the midwives because I didn’t want to use the Doppler during my checkups and I didn’t want to have the first ultrasound (the one that defines the gestation period). The midwives gave their recommendation but at the end of the day I was the one that made the decisions for my baby.
I had the birthing experience I wanted; with the help of my doula Jen Kowal… my birth plan was followed. Lisa delivered me and at some point she was a little tough on me, when it came to the intermediate fetal monitoring but after some adjusting from my part things went smooth. I’m thankfully everything went just like I wanted it.

If I could leave no stars at this point I would. Everything was going well until I went into labor. I wish I had met Donna Roosa before I called her that day, so I could’ve used better judgement and left the practice. She was rude on the phone when I called her at 5pm and told her I was in labor with contractions 5 – 7 mins apart lasting a minute. She was asking me questions in an interrogative tone. She said she wanted me to stay home as long as possible, but she should have been able to tell that I was in active labor. That’s what I was told at my first visit. I told her I’d been in labor for 2 days already and she was dismissive. I called back at 9:30pm and she heard me have a bad contraction where I couldn’t even speak and dismissed me again saying that it wasn’t a full minute. Someone with her «experience» should’ve known that I needed to be in the hospital hours prior. I told her the whole point of me wanting to go to Morristown and having Avalon as my provider was so that I could labor and give birth in the tub, so she said «go in your own bathtub», to which I replied that I did not have my own bathtub which is why I wanted to go to Morristown-​to help with pain management. She said «then go in your shower. Do whatever you want». At that point my mom was 10 minutes away so I figured I’d wait for her. My mom called her for me as soon as she got here telling her that I was bleeding and she just said «oh it’s her bloody show». Though this was my first pregnancy, I knew that that was incorrect. I knew I was close to having the baby and the bleeding was scary. At that point she told my mom to get me to Morristown-​it was 9:50pm. I knew I wouldn’t make it to Morris town because contractions started coming every minute to two minutes. I had to go to the nearest hospital. I had the baby at 10:37pm. If I had gone to Morristown, the baby would’ve been born in the car. Donna Roosa is a terrible midwife. She is rude, condescending, unhelpful and just plain mean. Now my child cannot breastfeed because the calm birth I had planned for her wasn’t facilitated the way it was supposed to have been and I didn’t get the immediate skin to skin because I didn’t plan to give birth in Hoboken and they didn’t follow my birth plan at the last minute. If you don’t want to risk having a terrible birth, don’t go to Avalon Midwives. I’m glad I didn’t go to Morristown for the simple fact that I didn’t have to deal with Donna in person. My mother would’ve punched in the face!

If you would like to be sold on the marketing of this place — then you should sign up. Otherwise stay AWAY from this place.
First appointment I was sold the whole beautiful picture of what my birth would be like, only to find out that they do not necessarily practice what they preach. To top it off, the practice is large and growing. So if building a relationship is important, don’t think that you will have the chance to build one because you are required to see each midwife and STILL have the chance of being passed to somebody that you won’t know when you deliver.
They rely on student midwives to conduct portions of your prenatal appointments without your consent. They just bring in students without asking. I am not okay with this practice — it is not my responsibility to be a training tool. I questioned this practice and was given push bak. I was told that most midwives in the area regularly host students. Imagine my surprise (fury) when I contacted every single group that has midwives and found this statement to be false. On top of these students having access to my medical records without my consent, one young lady could not comprehend that I would not be consenting to a PAP smear during my first trimester when they were told to contact my previous OB to get my most recent well woman exam. I repeated myself three times before she realized that she would get nowhere with me.
Red flags were raised when I was discussing nutrition with a midwife who was completely clueless and gave me information that would have resulted in me consuming more than double the suggested calories for my weight and lifestyle. Completely uninformed and ignorant.
However, the most appalling and very last straw was when the same midwife not only drew my blood weeks early for blood work and it required me to get it redrawn at a later date, but also did so without wearing gloves. Yes, you read that right. WITHOUT WEARING GLOVES… DISGUSTING.
There were other issues with admin, but the issues mentioned in the post were the top issues that made me run for the hills.

Our experience with Avalon Midwives was amazing. Throughout my care the staff were supportive, knowledgable and respectful of my birth process. They each took time to get to know us and where so accommodating with scheduling us on weekends. Ilona was on call on the day of my sons delivery. Ilona has such a gift for what she does and gave me so much emotional and physical support throughout the entire process. The wonderful experienced we had welcoming our son into the world through a natural birth was thanks to Ilona’s strength, guidance and support. She will always have a special place in our hearts.

I had a wonderful experience with Avalon delivering my son. Each midwife took the time to get to know me while
I was pregnant. Kim was on call when I delivered and she coached, listened and made my husband and I very comfortable with the whole process. The staff at Avalon (especially Barbara) is also incredibly helpful with insurance related questions. I would highly recommend this practice!

The midwives here are amazing. They provided pre and post care while I was pregnant with my son many years ago. They were incredibly caring and accommodating to my needs. I couldn’t ask for better care.

I saw this group for my first pregnancy at their Morristown location (same midwives). They failed to put together multiple warning signs that I had developed preeclampsia and HELLP syndome until it was almost too late. I had spoken to them about my swelling, rapid weight gain and my baby was measuring small. I was told not to worry. 48 hours before my emergency C-​section I developed chest pain under my ribs and called twice that day. I was told not to worry — that it was just heartburn. The following morning after throwing up and having dark brown urine I called again. After explaining to the midwife (a different one from the day before) all of my symptoms, I was told it was probably a UTI and to just come in for my regularly scheduled appointment that afternoon. When I got there I was feeling awful and she took my blood pressure — it was over 200. I was told to go immediately to the emergency room. There I was met with the midwife on call (Lisa) and she was actually nonchalant with me and was in no hurry. It wasn’t until they called their affiliated OB Dr. Silverberg that I actually felt safe. He immediately diagnosed me with severe preeclampsia and Class I HELLP syndrome (the most severe). I was rushed for an emergency C-​section and my son was delivered prematurely at 30 weeks. I spent 7 days in ICU and needed a blood transfusion. My son spent 55 days in the NICU. Even while in ICU, only the Joanne Cunha treated me appropriately by being very serious. However, she was also the one who told me I probably just had a UTI. Most of the others were brash and even joked around.
The reason that I went to the midwives in the first place is because I am a young healthy woman, didn’t anticipate any problems, and had agreed with their philosophy. But you just don’t know. This groups attitude of being so nonchalant even when things get serious and also not taking the time to put together symptoms is dangerous and I would not recommend that anyone go to them. I am incredibly thankful for the OB affiliated with this group, Dr. Silverberg, because I truly believe that he saved both my life and my son’s life.

I started with Avalon midwives as soon as I found out I was pregnant. All the midwives there told me everything I wanted to hear all throughout my pregnancy. I grew to trust and respect them all. I excitedly looked forward to birthing with them for what I thought was to be a great holistic alternative to birthing with a Dr. Donna was on call when I went into labor and boy was I in for a surprise. If you are looking for a natural birthing please dont take a chance at Avalon.
My birth plan was completely dismissed /​ignored
Although I had a completely natural birth with zero complications I wasnt able to choose my birth position (I was just thrown on my back)
Pitocin was admisinstered without my knowlege (after the baby was born, but still)
Donna and the nurses where very cold. They didn’t explain anything that they were doing. They talked about me like I wasn’t even in the room. I felt like I was bothering them to be there.