Transcript of Kaitlyn's Baby | Episode 2: Pink flags

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A BBC World Service and CBC podcast production. A Warning. This story contains strong language and references to sexual abuse, sexual behaviors, and baby loss.

A little bit more intense now. Okay, good. It's going to grow a little bit more.

This is a recording a doula named Shanna, made of her client in labor. For two days, Shanna helped her client through the swells of labor. When her client needed a massage, when she needed encouragement, something to eat or a bath, Shanna was there I mean, she was there in person.

Good job. She would fall asleep, and I would fall asleep. And then a couple of hours later, I would wake up to her having a contraction.

Shanna is sending these recordings to her mentor, who texts back, Oh, Shanna, you're doing such a great job. She sounds amazing. You see, Shanna is a new Ella.

She was my very first client. My Instagram profile that she reached out to me through was probably two weeks old.

After months of learning under her mentor, Shanna, who asked that we only use her first name, was finally ready to take on clients of her own.

I had gone through quite a bit of my training. I wasn't finished it yet. I was still working on it. But again, if you don't need to finish your training before you start taking clients, She knew that I was brand new.

And here, with this client, she's excited to start practicing everything she's learned.

I want to be here to support you. I want to be here to make sure that you feel like you have a village.

The problem is Shanna's first client. Her name is Kaitlyn Braun. And Kaitlyn, she's not really pregnant. She's just really good at are tending to be pregnant. For CBC and the BBC World Service, I'm Sara Treleven. And this is The Con, Caitlin's Baby.

Episode 2, Pink Flags.

When Shanna found out that Kaitlyn wasn't pregnant, it hit her hard.

So I have a history of depression. I have struggled for a long time, but I was actually on really good meds at the time, so I was doing fine. And then this happened, And it was like, there's a lot of thoughts that hit me hard. One of them was, how could I let this happen to me? Blaming myself for it even happening in the first place.

The way Shanna eventually found out the truth, well, that's going to blow your mind. But for now, all you need to know is that once she did know the truth, she wanted the whole world to know it, too. She needed to stop other doulas going through the same thing, other doulas like Kate.

So initially, what I knew is that there was a young woman who had some abandonment issues, and she was going through a stillbirth at 24 weeks. I thought, Wow, that's rough. Okay.

Unlike Shana, Kate has been a doula for more than a decade. When she's not helping deliver babies, Kate works as a welder.

It's not always happy endings. We've all heard that saying, It is what it is, right? Maybe too many times. But there is a sense of satisfaction in being able to help somebody through something that would be traumatic.

At first, Kate and this new client chat on text.

The story just really tugged at my heartstrings that somebody was going through a loss alone. She told me a few things at that point. She told me that she had a friend with her, and that friend that's supporting her had taken her to a baby boutique to pick out a baby swaddle. That comment struck me as a little bit odd because I thought, I wouldn't want to be in a baby boutique if I knew that I was going to have a stillbirth. That would be one of the last places. But people deal with grief differently. She described that she was buying a baby swaddle because she just really wanted to have a fancy swaddle to put the baby in, to be buried, that thing. Makes sense. When you explain it that way, that makes a lot of sense.

When her client goes into labor, Kate jumps in her car. The woman had rented a place. Lots of women do that if they live far away from the hospital, don't feel safe in their homes, or simply want a private place to recover.

She texted me, Oh, you can just come in. Ha ha, I might be fully naked. That was the first time it crossed my mind that something was off, like something felt off about that. I had a moment where I stopped before I went in and I went, I'm about to be kidnapped. What if I'm being lured into an Airbnb to be kidnapped? That's where I was at when I met Kaitlyn. She told me that she had a sister and a mom, and that her mom knew about the pregnancy but wasn't supportive, and said that she would be a terrible mother, that she shouldn't have this baby, and her mother hadn't spoken to her in quite a while, and that her sister was traveling Europe, and so they didn't speak all that often. Although her sister knew about the pregnancy, she did not know that she had lost the baby yet. She told me that her and her girlfriend had had names picked out for the baby, and now she had to pick out a new name because the name was associated with the girlfriend who had just broken up with her. She couldn't name this child that name anymore because it would just be too sad.

She told me that she was 23, and her father had passed away two years before, so it was pretty young to lose your dad. I lost my father when I was 15. And I'd shared that with her because it's a tough loss to lose. It's tough loss to lose a parent.

Kaitlyn also told Kate that the pregnancy had been the result of a sexual assault.

She goes, Oh, By the way, did I tell you that this pregnancy is a result of a rape?

And she said it like that, by the way?

Yeah, it was like a passing thing.

The thing that I find interesting about Kate's retelling is that right from the beginning, she felt like things were a little off.

She didn't look all of that pregnant to me, even though she is plus sized. She just didn't have that roundness of her belly, that protersion If that happens. But I thought, Okay, she just lost the baby. I don't know why she's lost the baby. And at 24 weeks, you can hide that still. I was able to explain a way a lot the little pink flags that were coming up.

It was like Kaitlyn had studied so much about pregnancy and labor, but there were some things she couldn't fake.

I also thought it was odd that she wasn't peeing a lot because pregnant women are absolutely famous for needing to live in the bathroom. I remember with my last child, I would plan out pee breaks wherever we went. We were like, Okay, But did they have a public bathroom? And I'd noticed that she hadn't been peeing.

So Kate got Kaitlyn some juice. Maybe it was a matter of being dehydrated.

She drank the juice really quickly. And I know this sounds so silly, But I kept thinking like, Wow, heartburn. I know. I laugh about it now, but that was another one of those little pink flags. It was like something's... I don't Somebody in labor usually doesn't have the space in their stomach to be able to just gulp juice.

Despite all the small things that felt just a tiny bit off, Kate continued to feel responsible for Kaitlyn. A young woman without the support of family, pregnant from a sexual assault, and now delivering a stillborn baby. Every time Kate's mind drifted towards suspicion, her empathy kicked in, and she just kept helping.

She wanted to get into the bath, and I said, Okay, you know what? I'll draw you a bath, and then I will give you your privacy, and you can do whatever in there. She said, No, no, no, no. I really feel more comfort when you're in the room with me. I was uncomfortable with this because I have just met her. She got into the bath on her own and Despite what she had said about me being in the room, I was like, well, okay, I'll just keep the door a little open, right? And I will sit outside of the room with my back to the door because I want to give you privacy. So when she got into the bath, she said it wasn't warm enough, and she put the hot water on. And then she said, I feel dizzy. So I am automatically went, blood pressure Oh, my gosh, if she tries to get up and she falls in that bathtub. No. I was really, really scared of that happening. So she asked me to help her up. And I remember saying this. I said, Is it okay if I touch you? Do I have your permission to touch you to help you get out of the bath?

And she said, Yes. So I helped her out of the bath, and she had this thin summery robe. So I had grabbed that for her. And she gets over to the bed and she wanted to labor there on this big comfy bed. Then she grabbed the headboard of the bed, shook it, and said, This would make a really great sex bed.

Kate understands having a baby is connected to sex, but she had never had a client make a comment like that.

I think my subconscious was sending me a message.

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Join our team at Brothers of Charity Services and become part of a community which supports those with an intellectual disability To claim their rightful place as valued citizens, you'll be challenged and rewarded on a daily basis, and you will go home each day knowing that you have helped someone to achieve their hopes and dreams. Visit careers. Brothersofcharity. Ie to find out more about our roles and great company benefits.

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For those of you who don't know, birth can take a long time, sometimes days. So it's not unusual that a doula will stay with a pregnant person around the clock. And at this point, Kate has been with Caitlin for several days.

So I drive home, I change my clothes, grab my charger. She texted me, she that she just vomited.

Throwing up is often a sign that labor is ramping up, and the mom-to-be is moving into what is called active labor.

She texted me that, and I'm back into, Oh, okay, this has to be real. It has to be real. And I drive back, and when I come in, she hears me at the door, and she's standing there. She's wearing the same clothes. There's no vomit on her. There's no vomit anywhere. And she explained that she had cleaned it up. And not only had she cleaned up the vomit, she also did the dishes. And that was shocking. I was like, What do you mean you did the dishes It's like, if you're in labor enough to vomit from active labor, you don't care about the dishes.

That's the stage of labor where you're threatening to punch people in the face, right?

Yeah. You're not in your right mind.

Everything inside Kate is saying something is wrong here. You've had 10 years of experience. You've never seen a labor like this. So many things are off. For lack of a better term, Caitlin is creeping her out. But Kate is a doula, and she's trained not to doubt her clients. Doulas believe you. They care for you. And women who have had trauma, their pregnancies, and their labors are emotional, not just physical. And they are also really hard to predict.

I suggested to her that maybe you could just try and sleep in between contractions because I know you haven't had much sleep. She's like, No, I want to get in the shower. So I helped her into the shower, and I was just having so many doubts at this point. That creeping feeling was happening, that something's really, really off here because those pink flags add up. And I remember she was being awfully quiet. I passed by the bathroom and she was looking straight at me, leaning from the shower, just looking straight at me.

Just to reiterate, Caitlin is naked in the shower. The door is open, and when Kate walks by, instead of seeing a woman in active labor trying to find a way to relax and manage her contractions, she gets the sense that Caitlin is studying her. Ignoring her sense of unease, Kate helps Kaitlyn out of the shower and back into bed.

She's partially dressed at this point with the rope on. She asked me for a massage on her shoulders. I would just gently rub her shoulders through contractions and nice circular slow movements. In a general sense, what she was doing is she would go back to the bed, and then she'd be like, I want to go back into the shower. Then she would want to go back into the bed. Eventually, she wasn't putting that robe back on. She was asking me for that same massage, that really comforting massage. It made her feel so much better when I did that. She was naked, and I was massaging her back and shoulders. She was moaning, and she was leaning over the bed. At one point, things are getting really intense, and she seemed really into her labor pattern. So I had to get up and change positions. Again, she's moaning through contractions. And so I got up, and that was when I saw her hand between her legs. Her hand was moving, right? And at the time, I was like, What the heck is going on? And now, looking back on it, I do believe that she was touching her vulva.

I was in such shock about it. I was like, What is happening?

If Kate had only been seeing what she called pink flags up to this point, now, they were red. Really, really red.

Then I remembered something. I remembered reading that in a different region of Ontario, somebody had been faking a pregnancy at some point. I was like, No, that can't be.

Leaving the bedroom, Kate takes out her And so I typed her name into Facebook, into the search, Kaitlyn Grace Braun.

I find a post that Shanna had made somewhere on Facebook that said Caitlin Grace Braun had been faking pregnancies in Branfer.

Yep, Shanna, our novice doula who never wanted anyone else to get caught up in Caitlin's web of lies. Kate found her post.

And that moment of shock is just unforgettable. My heart wasn't in my throat. It was everywhere in my body at the same time. I was terrified. I was frozen in fear for a good five minutes. She's in the other room. She's moaning with fake contractions. I know she's not pregnant, and I don't know what to do about the situation. Do I confront her? If I confront her, what's she going to do? I mean, I'm thinking at this point, she's mentally ill enough to fake a pregnancy and labor with multiple doulas. It's not just me. I know at least one other person has gone through this scam. And And I thought, what does she have to gain from this? Did she rob me? Has she robbed me? Is there a camera somewhere? Is there a live feed? What is she gaining from this? And I'm just fucking were frozen.

Kate eventually finds the inner strength to move.

So I gather up my stuff quietly, and I think she heard me leaving. She said something to me, and I went into the room with her and I said, Listen, something's come up. I have to go. And then I ran. I couldn't get in my car fast enough. By the time I got home, I felt like I needed 100 showers. I felt nauseous. I was so filled with disgust and still trying to figure out what the hell just happened to me.

It is really hard to explain to people how and why this was harmful.

This is Shanna again, and this is why she wrote that post.

I can't just say that she assaulted me because that's not what happened. I can't say she defrauded me because that doesn't give you a picture of how emotionally it impacted me. It's so much more complicated than I think anybody is really understanding.

Shanna might not know why Caitlin Braun does what she does. She might not even yet be able to fully express the harm she experienced. But Shana is the one person who knows 100% that Caitlin wasn't pregnant when they cross paths in August 2022. Because after more than two days of laboring at home, of Caitlin resisting medical attention, Shana actually did manage to get Caitlin to go to the hospital.

I was like, Okay, Caitlin, you have to in the hospital. And I remember saying the whole time we were going from my car to the Emerge doors, I remember saying to her, I am not delivering your baby on the grass outside the hospital. I am not delivering your baby on the sidewalk outside the hospital because she's moving at a snail's pace. You know when you ask a toddler to go brush their teeth, how slowly they move? It was like, slower than that.

When they finally get into the hospital and into the maternity ward, and as Shanna watches those doors slowly close behind them, she has one thought.

I'm not keeping her here now. I can do what I'm supposed to do as a doula and comfort her, which is all I wanted to be this whole time. So we get into the triage room, and they hook her up to the monitors.

And Kaitlyn is given an the ultrasound.

The OB does the ultrasound, and I'm looking at the monitor, and there's no baby. And the OB stops the ultrasound, and there's a small part of me that was like, What's going on right now? You didn't find the baby. Why did you stop? So the OB sits down on the bed and very tenderly says to Caitlin, I'm so sorry, but there is no pregnancy. The only thing in your uterus is an IUD, and the imaging that you had done three weeks ago also shows no pregnancy.

So Caitlin had an ultrasound three weeks ago. There was no baby. There never was.

So at this point, I'm not sure if I'm dealing with somebody who's lying or somebody who's having a fictitious pregnancy. Because that's a thing, right? You can think that you're pregnant so much that your body physiologically reacts as though you're pregnant.

That's very true. There is a disorder called false pregnancy, where people believe that they're pregnant when they're not. They can even develop symptoms like a growing belly and not getting their period.

Like I've heard of people even going into labor when they're not pregnant. And so I made the decision that I could live with. I said I could either be really compassionate to somebody who does not deserve my compassion, or I could be really awful to somebody who really needs my compassion. I said I'm going to just show her compassion.

That lasts a day.

I remembered that she had told me that one of the reasons she was looking for a doula outside of Brantford is because she had had run-ins with a couple of doulas in Brantford. She said one of the big doulas in Brantford was talking about me to all of the other doulas. And so I get home and I remember that and I was like, Wait, maybe she was telling everybody that this lady is not pregnant.

Shanna starts to scroll through all of the socials. Searching under Caitlin's name, it doesn't take long to find some answers. Including finding the doula who had taken Caitlin to the hospital three weeks before for that first ultrasound.

So basically, the way that that story ends is the doula takes her to McMaster hospital, and Kaitlyn has imaging done or something, and then Kaitlyn fled the hospital.

Shana can barely believe it. It was all a big lie. She's got to do something.

So I started warning everybody, every doula that I know.

And it was these posts, these warnings that Kate clicked on while Kaitlyn was pretending to labor in the room next door.

It was so cold and calculated.

Still unsure of what happened to her, Kate decides to message Shanna.

I'm like, I think you and I were scammed by the same person. And she's like, Oh, my God. And that was when I found out that there had been other victims.

So many other victims. I'm still surprised when I think about the amount of people who have been swept up in the story. And when those victims started to connect, they went looking for justice. That's coming up on The Con, Caitlin's Baby. We made numerous attempts to contact Caitlin Braun, outlining the allegations made through the series and inviting her to respond to what has been said. She made it clear to me that she didn't want to be involved with the podcast. The invitation remains open to Caitlin should she change her mind and wish to respond. None of the sexual allegations against her were proven in court. This is a BBC and BBC World Service production. The show is written, researched, and produced by me, Sarah Trelevan. It was also written and produced by Kathleen Goldhar. Extra production support from Andrew Friesen and Alexis Green. Sound design and scoring by Mitchell Stewart. Emily Quinnell is our digital coordinating producer. Our senior producer is Veronica Simmons. The fact checker is Emily Mathieu. Our executive producers are Cecil Fernandez and Chris Oak. Tanya Springer is our senior manager, and Arif Noorani is the director of CBC podcast. For the BBC World Service, Kat Collins is the senior producer, and John Manell is the Podcast Commissioning Editor.

A BBC World Service and CBC podcast production.