Amy Silva has always recognized the importance of being part of a network of doulas who understand the intricacies of supporting clients during childbirth.
The London, Ont., doula’s need for community was reaffirmed last year when she was in court as one of the 17 victims of Kaitlyn Braun, the Brantford woman who pleaded guilty to faking pregnancies and fraudulently receiving the services of doulas across the province.
Braun, 26, was given two years of house arrest, but earlier this month, she pleaded guilty to new charges and has yet to be sentenced.
Her previous victims, in the meantime, have been brought together by their shared experience —some have since formed a collaborative of 51 Ontario doulas who specialize in birth, postpartum, end-of-life care and other disciplines.
“I chose to lean into the doula community and find the people who would support me, and I’m also able to be that person for other people,” said Silva, founder of the Collaborative Doula Collective. “It’s been vital for some of the doulas that have gone through the court case to really feel supported in a safe space.
“As a profession, sometimes doulas are not always collaborative and it can be somewhat competitive, so what I really wanted to highlight was that we can work together as doulas and have that community of people to fall back on.”
A birth doula is a trained professional who supports clients before, during and shortly after giving birth. 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. While doulas have certifications with different organizations, they are not registered with a regulating or governing body.
The group seeks to bring doulas of different backgrounds together to learn more about various expertise and how to better advocate for their clients, as well as serve as a support system for doulas facing professional challenges.
“We’re often working independently as doulas, going to a client’s house by ourselves, which is wonderful, but it does lack the critical piece of someone to debrief a difficult shift or birth experience with,” said London-area doula Seanna Hayes.
Court case ‘ignited a spark’ in community
Although some of the collective’s members, including Hayes, were involved in the Braun case, the majority joined to find community.
“The situation with Kaitlyn didn’t make this happen, but it may have ignited a spark which we then all worked together to fan the flames and say that if we’re going to be here together, we might as well make it good,” Hayes said.
“We realized how much we were all craving this sense of community, and we got the spark and decided not to let it die. We’ve really used our connections with each other to fuel us in building our own village.”
Last March, Braun was handed a conditional sentence in a Brantford court after pleading guilty to 21 charges, including fraud, indecent acts, false pretences and mischief for pretending to have experienced pregnancies and stillbirths between June 2022 and February 2023.
Braun would contact doulas on social media to seek help for pregnancy loss support and stillbirth labour. She told them her pregnancies were a result of sexual assault and she had no support from her loved ones.
This story is the subject of a new podcast from the CBC and BBC World Service — The Con: Kaitlyn’s Baby.
Earlier this month, Braun pleaded guilty in the Ontario Court of Justice in Hamilton to two new counts of obtaining by false pretence services under $5,000, two harassment-related charges and breach of a conditional sentencing order while she was under house arrest.
Hayes said Braun was her first-ever client and the ordeal traumatized her, but she has since developed a thorough vetting process for clients seeking her services pro bono, including having them be referred by midwives or fellow doulas.
“A large piece of doula work is the mutual trust we garner and earn with our clients,” Hayes said. “The vast majority of people are seeking out doula care, not to exploit anybody but to get the support they need for themselves.”
Lisette Weber has been a practising doula since 2022, and although she wasn’t a victim of Braun’s, she organized group therapy sessions other doulas during the case. She said it’s important to work with other like-minded professionals who help guide each other in the field.
“You need people who understand what being a doula is. As much as it’s not a 24/7 job, you get invested in people’s lives and journeys as they’re becoming parents and so having safe places to land like a collective was important,” said Weber, a doula in the Waterloo region.
Weber is looking forward to learning from other doulas, including about how their different modalities are connected to better assist clients, she said.
The collective will meet in London for its first conference in May. Silva hopes it’ll be an opportunity for doulas to connect and grow alongside each other, while learning how they can improve practices and learn new skills.
