Very difficult to get a hold of and I felt I was being pushed to make choices I was r comfort with

Delivering my baby through Riverdale Midwives was an experience I regret. I would not recommend them to first time parents. My primary midwife was Melida, she was unprepared and didn't react well to my questions- always responding with "you will learn about that in prenatal classes". We took the prenatal classes, and they were helpful but I still felt unable to ask Melida subsequent questions. I was sent to hospital to be induced. Melida failed to diagnosis that my water hadn't broken and had me on the highest level of Pitocin for several hours until the doctor came in to check and confirmed that it had not. Melida was also unable to attach the baby heart rate monitor without assistance. Later when the baby's heart rate fell several doctors came rushing into the room to take over. Thanks to their intervention my baby was born alive and well. When Melida was stitching me up she refused to stop when I told her I was in extreme pain until another midwife Linda made her stop and gave me a local anesthetic gel before continuing (there were 3 other midwives who at various times intervened/ helped Melida. I had never met them before. I had met 2 other midwives who were meant to be back-ups but I never saw them again.) After delivery Melida was inaccurate with her measurements of bilirubin and didn't seem capable of filling in the graph accurately. She told me to have bed rest for 2 weeks straight after giving birth given the ordeal it was and how damaged my perineum was. I was in severe pain and could still barely walk after 6 weeks. She failed to detect my diastasis recti (which was an 8 finger gap by the time I googled it several months later (having never heard of it before!) Her advice not to move from bed for 2 weeks directly contributed to my fecal loading (which is when poo is stuck in your colon and hardens causing extreme back pain, depression and inhibits diastasis recti healing). This was only diagnosed over a year later by a doctor. Melida completely ignored me after the baby was born telling me repeatedly that everything was normal with me, when it was not. I saw another of the midwives, Cate, but since she had not followed me and only met me as one of the midwives that came to help with delivery she repeated that everything was normal and I was discharged to figure out what was wrong alone. My recommendation for first time mums is to use a different midwifery clinic and deliver in a hospital (if nothing else than for peace of mind in case everything starts going downhill like it did in my case!) read more

When I became pregnant with our son, I knew right away that I didn't want to give birth in a hospital. Luckily, I found out quickly enough that midwifery is not uncommon at all in Toronto and so I decided on a planned home birth. I could not have made a better decision. Midwives are actually in high demand in the GTA, so it was more luck than anything else that I was able to get a spot with the Riverdale Community Midwives. My assigned midwives were Tia Sarkar and Julie Chapman. Tia was my primary midwife and I had most of my prenatal appointments with her. I was in good hands - Tia is very knowledgeable and was always able to answer all my questions. I was completely comfortable with her. She is a very friendly person, but at the same time radiates a special kind of calmness. Julie was my secondary midwife which means during the birth her responsibilities were mainly with the baby once he was born while Tia's focus was on me the entire time. I only had a few prenatal appointments with Julie, but we hit it off right from the start. She is such a sweet woman and you can't help but just like her. I love both of my midwives, but for different reasons: Tia's calmness was exactly what was needed during my labor. It was a situation I had not been in before and while I wasn't afraid, I still was a bit nervous of course. Tia's tranquility helped me immensely. Thanks to her, the entire time I had the feeling that everything (while painful) was just fine and that things were going well. Julie joined us later in my labor when it became clear that it wouldn't took to long anymore until my son's arrival. She was like a breeze of fresh air. I'll never forget her happy face when she stepped through the door, hugged me and said "We are going to have a baby soon! Isn't that awesome?!" Her appearance really brought some new energy. In the end, everything went like it was supposed to and I can honestly say that I had a wonderful birthing experience thanks to the support of these two wonderful women (as well as my husband of course who was just awesome throughout that entire night as well). I could not have asked for a better birth and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. (This will be my 100th review. I have saved this one until now since it's a bit special to me. :)) read more

They are extremely hard to hire. I have called about 5 times, left messages and filled out the online application with no response. I am quite interested in midwifery practices and trying very hard to get some more information as this is my first child. They aren't responsive at all which doesn't bode well for a time when someone responsive is critical. It also feels to be a vast contrast to the deep respect and love they speak of for women during this time. They won't answer, call back or email women who are exploring their options during this time. Very elusive and I really wanted to want a midwife. read more

I tried to write a "before" review of my prenatal experience, with a plan to then update my review postpartum. Whoops. Too late. The house is perfectly comfortable when you come in the front door. The waiting area is in the front sitting room, then through the kitchen to the back of the house is reception and a little office. After just a couple appointments they'll know you by name when you walk in. So nice! I loved going to my midwife appointments and my prenatal classes. Most of my appointments were with Julie, who I absolutely loved. She has such a calm confidence. So knowledgeable and caring. She also had a student midwife working with her from the Ryerson midwifery program. She was absolutely great as well. She was in her last year and I could do most of my appointment with her before Julie came up to check me out. Because my due date was May, she actually graduated before the birth. I was sad to see her go, but Julie did get another student. She was fresh new and more of an observer than the previous. But we got along great and I'm more than happy to help midwives teach more midwives with hands on learning. I also had some appointments with Babette. She was fantastic. I felt comfortable with her right away. Such a calm voice, and so knowledgeable too. Made me feel at ease. Julie ended up being at a recurrent training course on my birthing day so it was Babette and the student, Whitney, who attended to me. I was in great hands with Babette. My ideal home birth wasn't possible because of an irregular fetal heartbeat, but Julie had mentally prepared me for my new hospital birth reality the day before. They called the baby midwife right away after arriving to the hospital and Tiffany was a breathe of fresh air. I had never even met her prior. She was strong and encouraging and gave me that extra boost when I felt like I couldn't do it. No doctors or strangers were in the room interrupting our process because, even though they recommended the hospital birth to check the baby after delivery, it was not a transfer of care. So just me and the midwives, with a couple of my close friends in the room. Another bonus of midwife care is being discharged from the hospital so soon after delivery. We were heading home 3 hrs later! No matter how comfortable they think they can make a hospital, nothing compares to the comfort of your own home, and your own bed. Postpartum care was also a huge reason I chose midwife care. The midwives care for you for 6 weeks postpartum. The first few weeks they come to your home to do all the medical checkups. The last thing I wanted to do was get up, get in the car (or worse transit!) and go to a clinic with a tiny newborn for any follow up. Plus they aren't just making sure you are recovering physically, but mentally as well. Julie always made it very clear that if I had any questions, worries, or just needed to talk, that she was available to me. I recommend Riverdale Community Midwives to anyone! p.s. I was planning to possibly birth, or at least labour in water (although it didn't happen because everything happened so very fast for me). RCM will lend out the inflatable birthing pool at no charge. I was told after speaking to some friends that RCM might be the only clinic that does so for free! They just require that you purchase the birth pool liner for sanitary reasons and that you thoroughly clean the pool before returning it. read more

I'm currently with Riverdale for my second pregnancy and would highly recommend this practice. Appointments are short and helpful, everyone is lovely to work with and the place has a great atmosphere. read more

I had a wonderful experience. .. last minute i was transferred to a ob..but still my midwife julie was their with me till i gave birth to my son...its a wonderful clinic all the midwives are superb the entire 9 months journey was beautiful with them..warm, caring, professional, well versed with the knowledge of prenatal and postnatal care... sabina and the students mellasa and claire were also wonderfull..im going again for my 2 nd child same clinic and same midwife julie. Soon .....she is just awesome. .. I totally recommend it over an ob...at the end of 9 months they have become a part of family....so close read more

My sister used Riverdale midwives for her first son and he died. The midwives were completely unprepared for his stillbirth, in fact they didn't even know he was in trouble. It was a home water birth and they kept her in that pool even once she had defecated in it. He was delivered be candle light in a soiled pool lifeless. They were unable to resuscitate him, it was the ambulance who were able to but it was too late. The damage was done. We still miss him and our hearts are still broken. Please reconsider using these midwives. read more

I sent an application in and did not hear back from them. I called and was told that within two days I would receive a call. Still did not hear back. I called again and was told "I will be going through applications and will call you early next week" Third call was the same result. It has now been a full four months and I have finally received a voice message saying that they have assigned me to a midwife. I'm not sure how midwifery caseload works, if they are paid on salary and have no incentive to increase their caseload, or if they have a cap on volume of clients per midwife at any given time. Either way, I would have appreciated some honesty about the waiting time for a call back. It was either incompetence or disrespect for clients. I am disappointed because my first child was born with excellent midwifery care elsewhere, and I had hoped to repeat the experience. However I would rather a mutually respectful relationship with an OB than the disregard given to me and my health by the Riverdale Midwives. read more

I had the worst experience and it's really not what you want to happen for your first pregnancy/delivery/baby. I thought the midwives were really laid back from the beginning but when a pregnancy goes well, there is nothing to worry about. Women have been doing that for ages and I am not of a worried nature. I was planning on delivering at the midwives center or at my place that was literally across the street . But the closest we got to the due date, the more doubts I had: Babette asked me few times: did we do "x" test and did we do "y" test? I think it's worrying she didn't keep track of that. I did the pee test maybe 3 times when normally it's at each visit. Anyway, everything was going well so nothing to worry much about. Then, I started swallowing a lot but since it was summer, the midwives put it on the account of the heat. We discovered after I delivered I had pre-eclampsia. It could be totally unrelated but it could also totally be... I started labor 2 days after the due date. I paged my midwife who didn't think it would be relevant to tell me she was not on call (it's not like she was expecting one of her patient to deliver over the next couple of days since my due date was already passed). So my back-up midwife calls me back, tell me she is going to take a nap before coming to see me because: yes, my contractions are close to each other but not very intense. What does she know about my pain tolerance? I should have listened to my instinct and hop on a cab to go to St Michaels but for some reason, I was still trusting them. I told Andrea I wanted to deliver at the hospital. When she finally arrived, she could see the baby's head and said we could go to the hospital but I'll most likely deliver in the ambulance. Since the hospital is 5 min away for home, I was really happy to think labor would be so quick and I could just spend the night at home with my marvelous new born. Four hours later, I was still pushing on my bed when Andrea decided it was becoming critical to take me to St Mikes... At this point, I had to hold from pushing until I was in the delivery room. Ahhhh! The amazing obgyn on call had to do what she had to do. Then, she spent 2 hours repairing me without anesthesia... We end up spending 5 days at the hospital because of pre-eclampsia. At this point, Babette was still responsible for the follow up visits, which I was really uncomfortable with. But the hospital staff was there too so I know my baby was properly checked. All that doesn't matter because we have the healthiest baby in the world but I really didn't feel properly treated by the center. I guess the most important is to trust your guts. You know better than anybody else. Also, I can't help but wonder how the subventions work? Do midwives centers get more money when they do a home birth? Is it the reason why they push for it? ... Special mention to my second back-up who I really really liked: Tiffany. super calm and efficient. Very reassuring. read more

I actually wrote a review on my blog about my experience with a Midwife. Since I used the Riverdale Community Midwives, I thought I would share it here. http://mommiesknowbestblog.blogspot.ca/2013/02/why-i-would-use-midwife-again-and-again.html read more