We've had a rough year with Madison Birth Center so I wanted to repost my Google review here as this site was really helpful when I was looking for options on where to give birth:
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I became a client of the Madison Birth Center in February 2011 and planned to deliver with them in July 2011 based on extensive research and the excellent history of care and the reviews of Aszani Kunkle'rs work and vision. We were very happy with the CNM that we were meeting with and were aware that we would not be able to ultimately choose who would be our midwife at delivery and agreed top meet the other midwives. After several visits with a difference midwife who is a CPM we asked what had happened to the CNM we'd been seeing. We we're told she had been let go. This led to our discovery that all of the founding staff had left the practice in June 2010 when Aszani departed. None of this was explained to us and the Madison Birth Center website still does not make clear that their reviews and birth stories are with different midwives than their current staff. As the birth preparedness class was a disappointment as well we looked for and found an excellent local team of midwives. I have now met the other home-birth midwives in the Madison area and would highly recommend any of them. Several are CNMs and provide a very high level of professional care including emergency support.
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The Madison Birth Center was sold on 10/3/2011 to Whole Health Services LLC (Jennifer Bell) as an assets only sale (Per a letter from Loniello, Johnson & Simonini legal). Because I'd paid up front and my refund was not processed by the time the business was sold I am still owed $1,886 and have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau (no response from Madison Birth Center). Ultimately, the high cost of a Madison Birth Center birth (~$6,000) vs the rates for the local home birth midwives (~$2,500) goes to business that does not provide a high level of care for women and does not honor refunds to past clients. The ongoing dishonesty undermines the reason many of us chose women-center care - Trust. If you go with the Madison Birth Center, at the very least, be aware that they are on the verge of bankruptcy and do not pay in advance for services. And, ideally, choose one of the other local midwives who are fantastic. We'd never considered giving birth at home and now highly recommend it.
