Doulas in Ontario say they are victims of fraud by a woman now facing dozens of charges

A group of registered doulas in Ontario believe they are the victims of a Brantford woman who is now facing dozens of charges for fraudulently seeking their services.

Kaitlyn Braun, 24, was arrested by Brantford police on Monday and is facing more than 30 charges ranging from criminal harassment and fraud to sexual assault. Investigators say she allegedly sought the assistance of registered doulas across the province for false pregnancies and false stillbirths from June 2022 to February 2023.

CBC spoke with three women who are part of a group of about 50 doulas in Ontario who believe they are all victims. They say the ordeal with Braun has caused them severe trauma, along with the loss of valuable time, and in some cases, no financial compensation.

"I've been present at multiple births, so I know what labour looks like, sounds like and feels like," said Amy Silva, a London, Ont., doula who's been practicing for five years. "Nothing seemed to be off about this person, either to me or the other doulas. And we've all talked about it."   

A doula is a trained professional who provides continuous physical, emotional and informational support to clients before, during and shortly after childbirth. They also help with grief and trauma around pregnancy loss, but they're not health-care professionals who deliver babies and they don't have access to medical records or equipment.

The doulas CBC News spoke to all shared similar stories regarding how Braun contacted them.

They said Braun would get in touch on social media to seek their services, including pregnancy loss support, stillbirth labour and labour. One said Braun told her that doctors couldn't find a heartbeat for her fetus. 

The doulas also said Braun would tell them her pregnancy was a result of sexual assault and that she had no support from her friends or family. They say she gave them all different accounts of how far along in her pregnancy she was. Many doulas she reached out to said they felt compassion for her situation and agreed to work with her free of charge. 

Silva says Braun contacted her in mid-February claiming she was 24 weeks pregnant and needed help delivering a stillborn.

"Our business is based on building trust and relationships with people, so when somebody comes to us and says 'I'm experiencing a loss' we don't question that," she said. 

Braun reached out to London doula Seanna Tesse in August 2022 and told her she was 41 weeks pregnant and needed support for a live birth at her home in Brantford. Tesse says Braun made countless excuses to avoid going to a hospital.

"She was crying and screaming, saying that she'd been assaulted outside a hospital and it was very triggering for her," Tesse said. 

"I laboured in her home for three days, after which we went to Cambridge hospital and her labour mysteriously stalled and she would pretend to make phone calls to the hospital telling me doctors told her she can stay home."

Tesse grew suspicious and called the hospital herself. She said officials there denied ever telling a pregnant patient to stay home. Tesse then convinced Braun that they should return to the hospital and get checked out. Once there, Tesse said she overheard a doctor tell Braun that she wasn't pregnant and that there was nothing inside her except an IUD — a form of birth control.