Kaitlyn's Baby | Episode 2: Pink flags - The Con: Kaitlyn's Baby

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[00:00]
Matt Galloway
It is a wild time in the world right now, and sometimes it's actually hard to figure out what's what. The Current is here to help. My name is Matt Galloway and we bring you conversations to expand your worldview solutions to some of the wicked problems of our time, like is Canada underreacting to Trump's takeover threats? And our phones rewiring our brains. We'll also bring you great stories you might never heard of before, including why are we suddenly obsessed with doppelgangers? The you can find the Current wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube. I'll talk to you soon.
[00:31]
Sarah Trelevin
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. This is a recording a doula named Shauna made of her client. In labor for two days. Shauna helped her client through the swells of labor. When her client needed a massage, when she needed encouragement, something to eat or a bath, Shauna was there. I mean, she was there in person. Good job.
[01:26]
Shauna
She would fall asleep and I would fall asleep, and then a couple hours later I would wake up to her having a contraction.
[01:32]
Sarah Trelevin
Shauna is sending these recordings to her mentor, who texts back, aw, Shauna, you're doing such a great job. She sounds amazing. You see, Shauna is a new doula.
[01:44]
Shauna
She was my very first client. My Instagram profile that she reached out to me through was like probably two weeks old.
[01:52]
Sarah Trelevin
After months of learning under her mentor, Shauna, who asked that we only use her first name, was finally ready to take on clients of her own.
[02:01]
Shauna
I had gone through quite a bit of my training. I wasn't finished it yet. I was still working on it. But again, like, you don't need to finish your training before you start taking clients. She knew that I was brand new.
[02:15]
Sarah Trelevin
And here with this client, she's excited to start practicing everything she's learned.
[02:22]
Shauna
I want to be here to support you. I want to be here to make sure that you feel like you have a village.
[02:30]
Sarah Trelevin
The problem is Shauna's first client. Her name is Kaitlyn Braun and Caitlin, she's not really pregnant. She's just really good at pretending to be. Pregn for CBC and the BBC World Service. I'm Sarah Trelevin and this is the Caitlyn's baby. Episode 2 Pink Flags When Shauna found out that Caitlyn wasn't pregnant, it hit her hard.
[03:24]
Shauna
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 a. There's a lot of thoughts that kind of hit me hard. One of them was, you know, how could I let this happen to me? Blaming myself for it even happening in the first place.
[04:00]
Sarah Trelevin
The way Shauna 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.
[04:22]
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. And I thought, wow, that's rough. Okay.
[04:39]
Sarah Trelevin
Unlike Shauna, Kate has been a doula for more than a decade. When she's not helping deliver babies, Kate works as a welder.
[04:47]
Kate
It's not always happy endings. You know, we've all heard that saying. It is what it is, right? Maybe too many times. Um, but there is a sense of satisfaction in being able to help somebody through something that would be traumatic at first.
[05:05]
Sarah Trelevin
Kate and this new client chat on text.
[05:08]
Kate
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. And it, like, that comment struck me as a little bit odd because I thought, like, 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, you know, people deal with grief differently. So she described that she was buying a baby swaddle because she just really wanted to have, like, a fancy swaddle to put the baby in to be buried. That kind of thing makes sense, you know, when you explain it that way, that makes a lot of sense.
[06:06]
Sarah Trelevin
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. Or simply want a private place to recover.
[06:19]
Kate
She texts me, oh, you can just come in, you know, Ha ha. I might be fully naked. And that was the first time it crossed my mind that something was off. Like, something felt off about that. And I had a moment where I stopped before I went in and I went, I'm about to be Kidnapped. Like, what if. What if I'm being lured into an Airbnb to be kidnapped? That's sort of where I was at when I met Caitlyn. 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. 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, and 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's pretty young to lose your dad. I lost my father when I was 15, and I'd shared that with her because it is a really. It's a tough loss to lose. It's tough loss to lose parents.
[08:07]
Sarah Trelevin
Caitlin also told Kate that the pregnancy had been the result of a sexual assault.
[08:12]
Kate
She goes, oh, by the way, did I tell you that this pregnancy is a result of a rape?
[08:18]
Sarah Trelevin
And she said it like that, by the way.
[08:20]
Kate
Yeah, it was like a passing thing.
[08:23]
Sarah Trelevin
The thing that I find interesting about Kate's retelling is that right from the beginning, she felt like things were a little off.
[08:32]
Kate
She didn't look all of that pregnant to me. Even though she is plus sized, she just didn't have that, like, roundness of her belly, you know, that, like, protrusion that happens. But I thought, okay, like, she just lost the baby. I don't know why she's lost the baby. And, you know, at 24 weeks, you can. You can kind of hide that still. I was able to explain away a lot of the little pink flags that were coming up.
[09:02]
Sarah Trelevin
It was like Caitlin had studied so much about pregnancy and labor, but there were some things she couldn't fake.
[09:09]
Kate
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. You know, Like, I remember with my last child, I would plan out pee breaks wherever we went. Like, okay, but did they have a public bathroom? And I noticed that she hadn't been peeing.
[09:33]
Sarah Trelevin
So Kate got Caitlyn some juice. Maybe it was a matter of being dehydrated.
[09:38]
Kate
She drank the juice really quickly, and I know this sounds so silly, but I kept thinking, like, wow, heartburn or something. I know I laugh about it now, but that was another one of those little pink flags that was like, something's like, I don't. Somebody in labor usually doesn't have, like, the space in their stomach to be able to just gulp juice.
[10:09]
Sarah Trelevin
Despite all the small things that felt just a tiny bit off, Kate continued to feel responsible for Caitlyn. 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.
[10:30]
Kate
So she wanted to get into the bath. And I said, okay, you know what? I'll draw you a bath, you know, and then I will give you your privacy, and you can. You can do whatever in there. She said, no, no, no, no. I just. I really feel more comfort when you're in the room with me. And I was uncomfortable with this because I have just met her. So 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, you know, 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. She put the hot water on, and then she said, I feel dizzy, so I am automatically went. Blood pressure issue. Oh, my gosh. If she tries to get up and she falls in that bathtub, like, that's. 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? You know, 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, like, 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, like, big, comfy bed. And then she grabbed the headboard of the bed, shook it, and said, this would make a really great sex bed.
[12:28]
Sarah Trelevin
Kate understands having a baby is connected to sexual, but she had never had a client make a comment like that.
[12:36]
Kate
I think my subconscious was sending me a message.
[12:48]
Sarah Trelevin
Hi, I'm Oona Chaplin, and I'm the host of Hollywood Exiles. It tells the story of how my grandfather, Charlie Chaplin and many others were caught up in a campaign to root out communism in Hollywood. It's a story of glamour and scandal and political intrigue and a battle for the soul of a nation. Hollywood exiles from CBC Podcasts and the BBC World Service find it wherever you get your podcasts.
[13:19]
Matt Galloway
Why are humans so smart and yet so stupid? Is black plastic bad for me or not? And can the United States actually take over Canada? We look at these and all kinds of other big questions on the Current, our award winning podcast that brings you stories and conversations to expand your worldview. My name is Matt Galloway. We're going to look for solutions to wicked problems. We will actually listen to each other and we'll make time to find the delight that exists in our world. You can find the Current wherever you get your podcasts, we'll talk to you soon.
[13:56]
Sarah Trelevin
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 Caitlyn for several days.
[14:11]
Kate
So I drive home, I change my clothes, grab my charger. She texts me, she says that she just vomited.
[14:17]
Sarah Trelevin
Throwing up is often a sign that labor is ramping up and the mom to be is moving into what is called active labor.
[14:24]
Kate
She texts me that and I'm like, 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 sort of standing there. She's wearing the same clothes. There's no vomit on her. No, 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? Like, if you're in labor enough to vomit from active labor, you don't care about the dishes.
[15:07]
Sarah Trelevin
That's the stage of labor where you're like threatening to punch people in the face, right?
[15:12]
Kate
Yeah. Yeah. Like, you don't. You're not in your right mind.
[15:17]
Sarah Trelevin
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 sort of 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.
[15:52]
Kate
I suggested to her that, you know, maybe you could just, like, try and sleep in between contractions, because you. 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. Like, I was. 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, like, looking straight at me, like, leaning from the shower, just looking straight at me.
[16:33]
Sarah Trelevin
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 Caitlin out of the shower and back into bed.
[17:04]
Kate
So she's partially dressed at this point with the rope on. And she asked me for a massage on her shoulders. So, you know, I would just gently rub her shoulders through contractions in, like, nice, circular, slow movements. So in sort of 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. And then she would want to go back into the bed. And, you know, eventually she wasn't putting that rope back on, and she was asking me for that same massage, that really comforting massage. Like, it just. It made her feel so much better when I did that. Um, so she was naked, and I was sort of massaging her back and shoulders, and she was moaning, and she was sort of, like, leaning over the bed. So at one point, things are getting really intense, and she seemed, like, really into her labor pattern, so I had to get up and change positions again. She's. 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?
[18:36]
Sarah Trelevin
If Kate had only been seeing what she called pink flags up to this point now, they were red. Really, really red.
[18:45]
Kate
And 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.
[18:59]
Sarah Trelevin
Kate takes out her phone.
[19:01]
Kate
And so I typed her name into Facebook into the search. Caitlin, Grace and Braun. I find a post that Shauna had made somewhere on Facebook that said Caitlin Grace Braun had been faking pregnancies in Brantford.
[19:20]
Sarah Trelevin
Yep. Shauna, our novice doula who never wanted anyone else to get caught up in Caitlin's web of lies. Kate found her post.
[19:30]
Kate
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. Like, I was terrified. I was frozen in fear for, like, 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 this situation. Like, do I confront her? If I confront her, what's she gonna do? I mean, you know, 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 then I thought, what does she have to gain from this? Like, did she rob me? Has she robbed me? Is there camera somewhere? Is there, like, a live feed? Is you. Like, what is she gaining from this? And I'm just fucking frozen.
[20:33]
Sarah Trelevin
Kate eventually finds the inner strength to move.
[20:36]
Kate
So I gather up my stuff quietly, and I think she heard me leaving. She. You know, 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 just. I felt like I needed a hundred showers. Like, I felt nauseous. I was so filled with disgust and still trying to figure out what the hell just happened to me.
[21:26]
Shauna
It is really hard to explain to people how and why this was harmful.
[21:32]
Sarah Trelevin
This is Shawna again, and this is why she wrote that post.
[21:38]
Shauna
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. Right. It's. It's so much more complicated than I think anybody is really understanding.
[21:58]
Sarah Trelevin
Shauna might not know why Kaitlin Braun does what she does. She might not even yet be able to fully express the harm she experienced. But Shauna is the one person who knows 100% that Caitlyn wasn't pregnant when they crossed paths in August. 2022. Because after more than two days of laboring at home of Caitlin, resisting medical attention, Shawn actually did manage to get Caitlyn to go to the hospital.
[22:27]
Shauna
I was like, okay, Caitlyn. Like, you have to go in the hospital. And I remember saying all 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, like, at a snail's pace. Like, you know when you ask a toddler to go brush their teeth, how slowly they move? It was, like, slower than that.
[23:00]
Sarah Trelevin
When they finally get into the hospital and into the maternity ward, and as Shauna watches those doors slowly close behind them, she has one thought.
[23:10]
Shauna
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.
[23:27]
Sarah Trelevin
Monitors, and Caitlyn is given an ultrasound.
[23:31]
Shauna
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 was a small part of me that was like, what's going on right now? Like, you didn't find the baby? Why did you stop? So the OB sits down on the bed and very tenderly says to Caitlyn, 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.
[24:11]
Sarah Trelevin
So Kaitlyn had an ultrasound three weeks ago. There was no baby. There never was.
[24:24]
Shauna
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. You can think that you're pregnant so much that your body physiologically reacts as though you're pregnant.
[24:45]
Sarah Trelevin
That's very true. There is a disorder called false pregnancy, which. 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.
[24:57]
Shauna
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 gonna just show her compassion.
[25:23]
Sarah Trelevin
That lasts a day.
[25:25]
Shauna
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 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.
[25:53]
Sarah Trelevin
Shauna starts to scroll through all of the socials, searching under Kaitlin's name. It doesn't take long to find some answers, including finding the doula who had taken Caitlyn to the hospital three weeks before for that first ultrasound.
[26:09]
Shauna
So basically, the way that that story ends is is the doula takes her to McMaster Hospital and Caitlin has imaging done or something. And then Caitlin fled the hospital.
[26:23]
Sarah Trelevin
Shauna can barely believe it. It was all a big lie. She's got to do something.
[26:30]
Shauna
So I started, like, warning everybody, every doula that I know.
[26:37]
Sarah Trelevin
And it was these posts, these warnings that Kate clicked on while Caitlyn was pretending to labor in the room next door.
[26:47]
Kate
It was so cold and calculated.
[26:50]
Sarah Trelevin
Still unsure of what happened to her, Kate decides to message Shauna.
[26:54]
Kate
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.
[27:06]
Sarah Trelevin
So many other victims. I'm still surprised when I think about the amount of people who have been swept up in this story. And when those victims started to connect, they went looking for justice. That's coming up on the Con. Katelyn's baby. We made numerous attempts to contact Kaitlin 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 Caitlyn should she change her mind and wish to respond. None of the sexual allegations against her were proven in court. This is a CBC and BBC World Service production. The show is written, researched and produced by me, Sarah Trelevin. 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 Narani is the director of CBC Podcasts for the BBC World Service. Kat Collins is the senior producer and John Mennell is the podcast commissioning ed. A BBC World Service and CBC podcast production.

Summary4 min read

Summary of "The Con: Kaitlyn's Baby"

Episode 2: "Pink Flags"

Release Date: January 21, 2025
Host/Author: CBC + BBC World Service

Introduction

"The Con: Kaitlyn's Baby" is a gripping six-part true crime series produced by CBC and the BBC World Service. Hosted by Sarah Trelevin, the series delves into the enigmatic case of Kaitlyn Braun, a young woman who orchestrates a complex web of deception involving multiple birth workers. Season 2 continues the exploration of Kaitlyn's manipulative tactics, raising profound moral and ethical questions. This episode, titled "Pink Flags," focuses on the initial interactions between Kaitlyn and two doulas—Shauna and Kate—and the unraveling of Kaitlyn's deceit.

Content Warning: This episode contains strong language and references to sexual abuse, sexual behaviors, and baby loss.

Shauna's First Encounter with Kaitlyn

The episode opens with Shauna, a novice doula, detailing her experience assisting her first client, Kaitlyn Braun. Despite Shauna's limited experience, she is eager to apply her training to support Kaitlyn through labor.

Shauna (00:31): "She would fall asleep and I would fall asleep, and then a couple hours later I would wake up to her having a contraction."

Shauna seeks guidance from her mentor, who praises her dedication (01:32). However, doubts arise when Shauna discovers that Kaitlyn was never actually pregnant.

Shauna (21:25): "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."

Kate's Experience with Kaitlyn

Kate, an experienced doula of over a decade who also works as a welder, shares her unsettling experience with Kaitlyn. From the outset, Kate senses irregularities in Kaitlyn's behavior and story.

Kate (04:38): "I thought, like, wow, that's rough. Okay."
Kate (05:07): "The story just really tugged at my heartstrings that somebody was going through a loss alone."

Despite noticing several "pink flags"—subtle signs that something is amiss—Kate's empathy compels her to continue supporting Kaitlyn.

Kate (08:32): "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."

As labor intensifies, Kate's suspicions grow. Kaitlyn exhibits bizarre behavior, including inappropriate comments and actions during labor, which raise red flags.

Kate (12:35): "I think my subconscious was sending me a message."

Eventually, Kate uncovers evidence of Kaitlyn's fraudulent activities through social media, leading to a terrifying realization that Kaitlyn had been deceiving multiple doulas.

Kate (19:00): "Caitlin Grace Braun had been faking pregnancies in Brantford."

The Unveiling of Kaitlyn's Deception

Shauna and Kate, both having been duped by Kaitlyn, connect and share their experiences, revealing that Kaitlyn's deceit was more widespread than initially thought. The revelation prompts them to seek justice and warn other doulas about Kaitlyn's manipulative schemes.

Shauna (25:23): "Maybe she was telling everybody that this lady is not pregnant."

Despite multiple attempts to contact Kaitlyn for her response to the allegations, she declined to participate, leaving the victims seeking closure independently.

Concluding Insights

"Pink Flags" underscores the intricate psychological manipulation employed by Kaitlyn Braun, who not only fakes pregnancies but also orchestrates elaborate scenarios to deceive and exploit birth workers. The episode raises critical questions about trust, the vulnerability of those in supportive roles, and the lengths individuals might go to conceal their true intentions.

The doulas' experiences highlight the importance of vigilance and support within communities dedicated to care and assistance. As Kaitlyn's story unfolds, it serves as a cautionary tale about the complexities of deception and the profound impact it can have on both victims and professionals striving to help.

Notable Quotes with Attribution and Timestamps

Shauna (00:31): "She would fall asleep and I would fall asleep, and then a couple hours later I would wake up to her having a contraction."
Shauna (21:25): "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."
Kate (04:38): "I thought, like, wow, that's rough. Okay."
Kate (05:07): "The story just really tugged at my heartstrings that somebody was going through a loss alone."
Kate (08:32): "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."
Kate (12:35): "I think my subconscious was sending me a message."
Kate (19:00): "Caitlin Grace Braun had been faking pregnancies in Brantford."
Shauna (25:23): "Maybe she was telling everybody that this lady is not pregnant."

Production Credits

This episode was written, researched, and produced by Sarah Trelevin and Kathleen Goldhar, with additional production support from Andrew Friesen and Alexis Green. Sound design and scoring were crafted by Mitchell Stewart, while Emily Quinnell served as the digital coordinating producer. The senior producer was Veronica Simmons, with Emily Mathieu handling fact-checking. Executive producers included Cecil Fernandez and Chris Oak, supported by senior manager Tanya Springer and director Arif Narani. Kat Collins was the senior producer, and John Mennell acted as the podcast commissioning editor.

"The Con: Kaitlyn's Baby" continues to unravel the intricacies of Kaitlyn Braun's manipulative actions, offering listeners a compelling narrative that challenges perceptions of trust and authenticity within the realm of caregiving professions.

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Transcript77 lines

[00:00]
Matt Galloway
It is a wild time in the world right now, and sometimes it's actually hard to figure out what's what. The Current is here to help. My name is Matt Galloway and we bring you conversations to expand your worldview solutions to some of the wicked problems of our time, like is Canada underreacting to Trump's takeover threats? And our phones rewiring our brains. We'll also bring you great stories you might never heard of before, including why are we suddenly obsessed with doppelgangers? The you can find the Current wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube. I'll talk to you soon.
[00:31]
Sarah Trelevin
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. This is a recording a doula named Shauna made of her client. In labor for two days. Shauna helped her client through the swells of labor. When her client needed a massage, when she needed encouragement, something to eat or a bath, Shauna was there. I mean, she was there in person. Good job.
[01:26]
Shauna
She would fall asleep and I would fall asleep, and then a couple hours later I would wake up to her having a contraction.
[01:32]
Sarah Trelevin
Shauna is sending these recordings to her mentor, who texts back, aw, Shauna, you're doing such a great job. She sounds amazing. You see, Shauna is a new doula.
[01:44]
Shauna
She was my very first client. My Instagram profile that she reached out to me through was like probably two weeks old.
[01:52]
Sarah Trelevin
After months of learning under her mentor, Shauna, who asked that we only use her first name, was finally ready to take on clients of her own.
[02:01]
Shauna
I had gone through quite a bit of my training. I wasn't finished it yet. I was still working on it. But again, like, you don't need to finish your training before you start taking clients. She knew that I was brand new.
[02:15]
Sarah Trelevin
And here with this client, she's excited to start practicing everything she's learned.
[02:22]
Shauna
I want to be here to support you. I want to be here to make sure that you feel like you have a village.
[02:30]
Sarah Trelevin
The problem is Shauna's first client. Her name is Kaitlyn Braun and Caitlin, she's not really pregnant. She's just really good at pretending to be. Pregn for CBC and the BBC World Service. I'm Sarah Trelevin and this is the Caitlyn's baby. Episode 2 Pink Flags When Shauna found out that Caitlyn wasn't pregnant, it hit her hard.
[03:24]
Shauna
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 a. There's a lot of thoughts that kind of hit me hard. One of them was, you know, how could I let this happen to me? Blaming myself for it even happening in the first place.
[04:00]
Sarah Trelevin
The way Shauna 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.
[04:22]
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. And I thought, wow, that's rough. Okay.
[04:39]
Sarah Trelevin
Unlike Shauna, Kate has been a doula for more than a decade. When she's not helping deliver babies, Kate works as a welder.
[04:47]
Kate
It's not always happy endings. You know, we've all heard that saying. It is what it is, right? Maybe too many times. Um, but there is a sense of satisfaction in being able to help somebody through something that would be traumatic at first.
[05:05]
Sarah Trelevin
Kate and this new client chat on text.
[05:08]
Kate
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. And it, like, that comment struck me as a little bit odd because I thought, like, 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, you know, people deal with grief differently. So she described that she was buying a baby swaddle because she just really wanted to have, like, a fancy swaddle to put the baby in to be buried. That kind of thing makes sense, you know, when you explain it that way, that makes a lot of sense.
[06:06]
Sarah Trelevin
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. Or simply want a private place to recover.
[06:19]
Kate
She texts me, oh, you can just come in, you know, Ha ha. I might be fully naked. And that was the first time it crossed my mind that something was off. Like, something felt off about that. And I had a moment where I stopped before I went in and I went, I'm about to be Kidnapped. Like, what if. What if I'm being lured into an Airbnb to be kidnapped? That's sort of where I was at when I met Caitlyn. 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. 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, and 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's pretty young to lose your dad. I lost my father when I was 15, and I'd shared that with her because it is a really. It's a tough loss to lose. It's tough loss to lose parents.
[08:07]
Sarah Trelevin
Caitlin also told Kate that the pregnancy had been the result of a sexual assault.
[08:12]
Kate
She goes, oh, by the way, did I tell you that this pregnancy is a result of a rape?
[08:18]
Sarah Trelevin
And she said it like that, by the way.
[08:20]
Kate
Yeah, it was like a passing thing.
[08:23]
Sarah Trelevin
The thing that I find interesting about Kate's retelling is that right from the beginning, she felt like things were a little off.
[08:32]
Kate
She didn't look all of that pregnant to me. Even though she is plus sized, she just didn't have that, like, roundness of her belly, you know, that, like, protrusion that happens. But I thought, okay, like, she just lost the baby. I don't know why she's lost the baby. And, you know, at 24 weeks, you can. You can kind of hide that still. I was able to explain away a lot of the little pink flags that were coming up.
[09:02]
Sarah Trelevin
It was like Caitlin had studied so much about pregnancy and labor, but there were some things she couldn't fake.
[09:09]
Kate
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. You know, Like, I remember with my last child, I would plan out pee breaks wherever we went. Like, okay, but did they have a public bathroom? And I noticed that she hadn't been peeing.
[09:33]
Sarah Trelevin
So Kate got Caitlyn some juice. Maybe it was a matter of being dehydrated.
[09:38]
Kate
She drank the juice really quickly, and I know this sounds so silly, but I kept thinking, like, wow, heartburn or something. I know I laugh about it now, but that was another one of those little pink flags that was like, something's like, I don't. Somebody in labor usually doesn't have, like, the space in their stomach to be able to just gulp juice.
[10:09]
Sarah Trelevin
Despite all the small things that felt just a tiny bit off, Kate continued to feel responsible for Caitlyn. 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.
[10:30]
Kate
So she wanted to get into the bath. And I said, okay, you know what? I'll draw you a bath, you know, and then I will give you your privacy, and you can. You can do whatever in there. She said, no, no, no, no. I just. I really feel more comfort when you're in the room with me. And I was uncomfortable with this because I have just met her. So 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, you know, 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. She put the hot water on, and then she said, I feel dizzy, so I am automatically went. Blood pressure issue. Oh, my gosh. If she tries to get up and she falls in that bathtub, like, that's. 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? You know, 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, like, 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, like, big, comfy bed. And then she grabbed the headboard of the bed, shook it, and said, this would make a really great sex bed.
[12:28]
Sarah Trelevin
Kate understands having a baby is connected to sexual, but she had never had a client make a comment like that.
[12:36]
Kate
I think my subconscious was sending me a message.
[12:48]
Sarah Trelevin
Hi, I'm Oona Chaplin, and I'm the host of Hollywood Exiles. It tells the story of how my grandfather, Charlie Chaplin and many others were caught up in a campaign to root out communism in Hollywood. It's a story of glamour and scandal and political intrigue and a battle for the soul of a nation. Hollywood exiles from CBC Podcasts and the BBC World Service find it wherever you get your podcasts.
[13:19]
Matt Galloway
Why are humans so smart and yet so stupid? Is black plastic bad for me or not? And can the United States actually take over Canada? We look at these and all kinds of other big questions on the Current, our award winning podcast that brings you stories and conversations to expand your worldview. My name is Matt Galloway. We're going to look for solutions to wicked problems. We will actually listen to each other and we'll make time to find the delight that exists in our world. You can find the Current wherever you get your podcasts, we'll talk to you soon.
[13:56]
Sarah Trelevin
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 Caitlyn for several days.
[14:11]
Kate
So I drive home, I change my clothes, grab my charger. She texts me, she says that she just vomited.
[14:17]
Sarah Trelevin
Throwing up is often a sign that labor is ramping up and the mom to be is moving into what is called active labor.
[14:24]
Kate
She texts me that and I'm like, 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 sort of standing there. She's wearing the same clothes. There's no vomit on her. No, 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? Like, if you're in labor enough to vomit from active labor, you don't care about the dishes.
[15:07]
Sarah Trelevin
That's the stage of labor where you're like threatening to punch people in the face, right?
[15:12]
Kate
Yeah. Yeah. Like, you don't. You're not in your right mind.
[15:17]
Sarah Trelevin
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 sort of 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.
[15:52]
Kate
I suggested to her that, you know, maybe you could just, like, try and sleep in between contractions, because you. 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. Like, I was. 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, like, looking straight at me, like, leaning from the shower, just looking straight at me.
[16:33]
Sarah Trelevin
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 Caitlin out of the shower and back into bed.
[17:04]
Kate
So she's partially dressed at this point with the rope on. And she asked me for a massage on her shoulders. So, you know, I would just gently rub her shoulders through contractions in, like, nice, circular, slow movements. So in sort of 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. And then she would want to go back into the bed. And, you know, eventually she wasn't putting that rope back on, and she was asking me for that same massage, that really comforting massage. Like, it just. It made her feel so much better when I did that. Um, so she was naked, and I was sort of massaging her back and shoulders, and she was moaning, and she was sort of, like, leaning over the bed. So at one point, things are getting really intense, and she seemed, like, really into her labor pattern, so I had to get up and change positions again. She's. 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?
[18:36]
Sarah Trelevin
If Kate had only been seeing what she called pink flags up to this point now, they were red. Really, really red.
[18:45]
Kate
And 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.
[18:59]
Sarah Trelevin
Kate takes out her phone.
[19:01]
Kate
And so I typed her name into Facebook into the search. Caitlin, Grace and Braun. I find a post that Shauna had made somewhere on Facebook that said Caitlin Grace Braun had been faking pregnancies in Brantford.
[19:20]
Sarah Trelevin
Yep. Shauna, our novice doula who never wanted anyone else to get caught up in Caitlin's web of lies. Kate found her post.
[19:30]
Kate
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. Like, I was terrified. I was frozen in fear for, like, 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 this situation. Like, do I confront her? If I confront her, what's she gonna do? I mean, you know, 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 then I thought, what does she have to gain from this? Like, did she rob me? Has she robbed me? Is there camera somewhere? Is there, like, a live feed? Is you. Like, what is she gaining from this? And I'm just fucking frozen.
[20:33]
Sarah Trelevin
Kate eventually finds the inner strength to move.
[20:36]
Kate
So I gather up my stuff quietly, and I think she heard me leaving. She. You know, 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 just. I felt like I needed a hundred showers. Like, I felt nauseous. I was so filled with disgust and still trying to figure out what the hell just happened to me.
[21:26]
Shauna
It is really hard to explain to people how and why this was harmful.
[21:32]
Sarah Trelevin
This is Shawna again, and this is why she wrote that post.
[21:38]
Shauna
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. Right. It's. It's so much more complicated than I think anybody is really understanding.
[21:58]
Sarah Trelevin
Shauna might not know why Kaitlin Braun does what she does. She might not even yet be able to fully express the harm she experienced. But Shauna is the one person who knows 100% that Caitlyn wasn't pregnant when they crossed paths in August. 2022. Because after more than two days of laboring at home of Caitlin, resisting medical attention, Shawn actually did manage to get Caitlyn to go to the hospital.
[22:27]
Shauna
I was like, okay, Caitlyn. Like, you have to go in the hospital. And I remember saying all 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, like, at a snail's pace. Like, you know when you ask a toddler to go brush their teeth, how slowly they move? It was, like, slower than that.
[23:00]
Sarah Trelevin
When they finally get into the hospital and into the maternity ward, and as Shauna watches those doors slowly close behind them, she has one thought.
[23:10]
Shauna
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.
[23:27]
Sarah Trelevin
Monitors, and Caitlyn is given an ultrasound.
[23:31]
Shauna
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 was a small part of me that was like, what's going on right now? Like, you didn't find the baby? Why did you stop? So the OB sits down on the bed and very tenderly says to Caitlyn, 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.
[24:11]
Sarah Trelevin
So Kaitlyn had an ultrasound three weeks ago. There was no baby. There never was.
[24:24]
Shauna
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. You can think that you're pregnant so much that your body physiologically reacts as though you're pregnant.
[24:45]
Sarah Trelevin
That's very true. There is a disorder called false pregnancy, which. 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.
[24:57]
Shauna
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 gonna just show her compassion.
[25:23]
Sarah Trelevin
That lasts a day.
[25:25]
Shauna
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 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.
[25:53]
Sarah Trelevin
Shauna starts to scroll through all of the socials, searching under Kaitlin's name. It doesn't take long to find some answers, including finding the doula who had taken Caitlyn to the hospital three weeks before for that first ultrasound.
[26:09]
Shauna
So basically, the way that that story ends is is the doula takes her to McMaster Hospital and Caitlin has imaging done or something. And then Caitlin fled the hospital.
[26:23]
Sarah Trelevin
Shauna can barely believe it. It was all a big lie. She's got to do something.
[26:30]
Shauna
So I started, like, warning everybody, every doula that I know.
[26:37]
Sarah Trelevin
And it was these posts, these warnings that Kate clicked on while Caitlyn was pretending to labor in the room next door.
[26:47]
Kate
It was so cold and calculated.
[26:50]
Sarah Trelevin
Still unsure of what happened to her, Kate decides to message Shauna.
[26:54]
Kate
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.
[27:06]
Sarah Trelevin
So many other victims. I'm still surprised when I think about the amount of people who have been swept up in this story. And when those victims started to connect, they went looking for justice. That's coming up on the Con. Katelyn's baby. We made numerous attempts to contact Kaitlin 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 Caitlyn should she change her mind and wish to respond. None of the sexual allegations against her were proven in court. This is a CBC and BBC World Service production. The show is written, researched and produced by me, Sarah Trelevin. 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 Narani is the director of CBC Podcasts for the BBC World Service. Kat Collins is the senior producer and John Mennell is the podcast commissioning ed. A BBC World Service and CBC podcast production.