1702: The Doula part 2

Speaker: I've been with her for four days. It's not a scam. Like, I saw her water broke. I've held her hair while she vomited. I've watched her, like, work through contractions in the tub, butt naked, while she's, you know, gyrating back and forth through this pain and trying to get her baby down. By now, you know that 24 year old Caitlin Braun faked dozens of pregnancies in order to manipulate doulas in and around Toronto, Ontario. Almost 60 doulas have come forward. Sarah Ryu was one of those doulas. Who fakes that in their right mind? Like who does that? If you talk to some of these doulas, they will tell you a pretty consistent story. Caitlin Braun approached him late in her fake pregnancy. The pregnancy, Caitlin would tell them, was a result of a sexual assault. She didn't want any money. In fact, sometimes, she would actually pay these doulas for their services. If I interviewed all 60 doulas, They would probably tell me the same thing. They all believed that Caitlin Braun was pregnant. Despite the fact that most of these stories are the same, some of them varied in detail. Today we're going to hear Sarah Ryu's story. Unlike Shauna Hayes, Caitlin Braun told Sarah that she was going to give birth to a stillborn. I recognize that this topic could be upsetting to some, especially for those who have lost a pregnancy. So, just a warning. You know, after listening to some of these doulas describe this game, I couldn't help but wonder, has Caitlin Braun been scamming people her entire life? I was able to find a former friend of hers that is willing to talk. Spoiler alert, way before Caitlin was reportedly scamming doulas, well, she was up to no good. I'm Javier Leyva, and this is Pretend. Stories about real people pretending to be someone else. When he reached out, she was my first private client to reach out. And so I scheduled it for that same night because I was super excited and, uh, pretty quickly after a consult, she, she let me know she wanted to move forward. I sent her my contract. I sent her the invoice and with my invoice, you have to set, you have to put a retainer down. So she paid that. Died, contract signed. It was great. Kaitlyn Braun put down a few hundred Canadian dollars. She didn't suspect a thing. So the day before we were scheduled to meet, she let me know that she went for an ultrasound that morning and she found out that there was no heartbeat and that her baby had passed. So obviously, you know, my heart for her and I was there kind of just we're texting back and forth instead of going to the hospital right away. Caitlin Braun chose to labor at home. She said, oh, my gosh, I think my water broke. I'm, you know, feeling pretty, pretty damp. And I stopped and grabbed like snacks and things for her because she had no, no food or anything to eat. Labor's a marathon. So you got a snack. So when I got there, she was like leaned over the couch on her hands and knees and was just like breathing through her contraction. When they would pause in between, she would look up and kind of fill me in about how they were starting to get a little stronger, a little closer together it felt like. So, you know, she would go through another contraction and I would kind of just help her breathe through it. I would, you know, sometimes like rub her back or do some massage to help her stay comfortable as much as possible. And just like give reassurance and things like that. How far along was she? Uh, she was about 34 weeks at this point. Wow. So that's pretty, pretty far along, right? Yeah. Does she look visibly pregnant to you? The thing is, is she's a heavyset woman. So sometimes, depending on how people carry their weight, you can't really tell. And she was one of those people, unfortunately, that I just couldn't tell. And so I didn't question it, um, because she, she was just on the larger side. So, um, and she did carry a lot in the front, so it made it really challenging. She looked like someone heavyset who could be pregnant at the same time. She obviously was not. Like Shauna Hayes and the other doulas, Sarah completely believed Kaitlyn Braun. She said her contractions were so realistic. They were, and I was timing them. And the wild thing was, is like, I was seeing them get closer together, and she wasn't really paying attention to my phone, but they were spot on, on like, you know, five minutes apart, five minutes apart. Like, they were very consistent. Um, eventually It's almost like she had practice doing this, right? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. All of a sudden, the contractions stopped. And so, in order to get them going again, we introduced a breast pump. So, using a breast pump can, when you stimulate your nipples in labor, can release some oxytocin, and that was the intention there. Before we had left the house, she was using the yoga ball, and bouncing on it, and somehow made the illusion of her water breaking. And when I say that, I mean A liquid exploded all over the floor. So, I don't know what the liquid is. I'm assuming she either peed herself and passed it off as her, her water breaking. Maybe there was a condom with water in there and that's why she chose to bounce on the ball knowing that that would allow it to break. We don't know. But she made it look like her water had broken somehow, but throughout the four days, like whenever I looked at my phone too much or like if I was responding to someone, she'd be like, what's wrong? Who's that? Is everything okay? And I think that was that she had constant fear of like. Me figuring it out or someone telling me because she was just so paranoid. And so definitely while I was home, she was sending some messages. Like if I like went to the bathroom and didn't respond within like three minutes, she'd be like, is everything okay? Are you mad at me? And so like, she definitely was getting suspicious. Sarah has no idea, but she's about to spend the next several days tending to every one of Caitlin Braun's needs. There was at one point where, after like the first 24 hours, where I dozed off like in the bed next to her, which is not normal, but I think it was just out of, um, depletion. But there was also times where I would just excuse myself and go on the couch, or there was like a futon in the next room over, and I would just go there. So after about 24 hours, I said, okay, you know what, like, we're not really making a ton of progress, not steady. Okay. So I, I urged her to call and see about getting some help. So, she called the doctor and they had said that they are pretty swamped with people actively in labor and so we should call back in a few hours. The scam reminds me of a really bad joke. You could tell a joke and then the punchline and be done with it or you could sit there and drag it on and on and on forever. How long now has it been since you've been there? Two days. Two days. Wow. Was she really calling the hospital or was that part of the ruse too? Yeah, it's part of it. She's a really good actor. Okay. Yeah. Me, it sounded legit. Obviously she didn't have them on speaker phone, but she sounded like she was having a full on conversation. You would never know. She was actually, I don't know if she was even calling someone or if she was just holding her phone up. I don't know. So I was pretty exhausted and, you know, some of us kind of, some of the doulas affected have kind of discussed and wondered if that was part of the plan is to like get you as sleep deprived as possible because Your decision making, your, you know, logic kind of goes out the window and you're just trying to survive. So that's probably part of her plan, right? So I said, why don't we just transfer to the next one over? It was maybe like a 20 to 30 minute drive. So we packed up, headed over, and then she had all her hospital bags with her. So I'm carrying that. I'm carrying my bag. Plus, I'm stopping with her every couple minutes to contract and make her way up to the labor ward. And so, it was quite the effort to get her even in the door. Lots of crying, lots of, I don't want to go in, lots of, no, I can't do this, and Of course, like I, you know, she has a lot of medical trauma and a lot of sexual trauma and just abuse. So I did not want to be too firm with her because I didn't want to add to it. And I didn't want to force her and I didn't want to make her feel unsafe because that's like the biggest hindrance to labor is causing someone to feel unsafe. So I was doing my best to be gentle, but also express how important it was that we got in there because we're going on, you know, several days now. Time is kind of of the essence. And so we never even got, All the way up to the floor that the labor ward is on. We got in the doors of the hospital and it was just complete breakdown, like hysterical tears, shaking, sweating on my behalf because I had all her bags and winter jackets and. Everything packed on me and she would like bury her face in my neck and be sweating on me. It was just, it was tough. People walking through the hospital were all stopping to stare wondering what we were doing because the commotion was just so loud. So I finally got her to sit down in like the cafeteria area and I was just like, okay, debrief me. Like what is going on? Where is this reaction coming from? Obviously I knew there was medical trauma, but I didn't know the extent of it. And she, like, broke down and told me that part of her trauma was that her sexual assault happened in the hospital. So, she had told me her dad passed in the hospital, and that is when she had the assault happen to her. It took us, like, two hours to get to the hospital. From the parking lot to the cafeteria took two hours because of the breakdowns and everything. We got in, we got outside of labor and delivery. I could see the labor and delivery doors and she just would not go in. It was absolute hysterics. And I was like, why don't we just get checked? We don't even have to commit to like the induction part. Why don't we just check and make sure you're doing okay? Even though Sarah didn't suspect a fake pregnancy, she was losing her patience. So she suggested they call another hospital and we're going on like two and a half almost three days at this point and We got to get seen they wanted us there for 7 a. m. The next morning And so this is like about an hour drive. So that means we'd have to leave at 6 And also consider the fact that it took us two hours to get there, like get from parking. So that means we were leaving at like four or five a. m. So we labor all night, gear up at like four in the morning, head to the hospital, only for us to be like half an hour away and her to get a phone call that they need to postpone the induction because they're swamped. And so we're already in that city and I was like, I really don't want to drive all the way back. It was a beautiful day. I was like, why don't we find a nice park? Let's go for a walk. That's really great for getting labor started. So we found this beautiful park. We did walks, we did lunges, we went on the swings even. We were just trying to do things, exercises that would help bring that baby down and get this labor going and get this baby out. So after doing that for a few hours, I was like, okay, let's call and pester them. Like, let's not let them forget about us. Let's put ourselves on the radar. So I had her call again, same thing. They were like pushing it and pushing it and pushing it. And by this point, like I'm, I'm nearing my breaking point too. And I'm thinking, how long is this now? Like three days. This is the fourth day. Now this is the fourth day. Yeah. So you are very patient, by the way, I was losing the patients by this point. Like I was, and then I was feeling guilty about losing my patients because I felt like, yeah, how could I feel like this when she has so much more on her chest? Right. It was like a really. weird cycle of like frustration and guilt and frustration and guilt. I've been with her for four days. It's not a scam. Like I saw her water broke. I've held her hair while she vomited. I've watched her work through contractions in the tub, butt naked while she's, you know, gyrating back and forth through this pain and trying to get her baby down. Who fakes that in their right mind? Like who does that? Her contractions had stopped. We were still in another city. So I said, listen, let's. get you home. Your contractions have stopped. We're going to have a very long and emotional day tomorrow. I'm going to go home, have a shower, get some rest, see my family, and I'll pick you up and we'll go tomorrow morning and everything will be great. And then I left and went home. At a loss for what to do next, Sarah writes a Facebook post to a doula group she belongs to. By the time I got home, I opened up my phone and again, more of those like responses to my posts that I had made, but I had a DM this time. And so I opened up the DM and it was someone who was reiterating the claim that it was a scam. But this time, she had, she said. This is a no thing. She gave me like a very similar story to what we had been experiencing the past four days. There was a few details different, but like the meat of it was the same and she knew my client's name first and last name. So I was like, I don't need any more evidence. Well, that's kind of a lie. I needed a tiny bit more. So I was like, I have an idea. She's got this induction scheduled. I'm going to call, I'm going to pretend to be her, and I'm just going to confirm for my induction because we've been getting a run around this far. It would make sense that I need that confirmation. And Then that will tell me what I need to know. And so that's what I did. I blocked my number. I called labor and delivery. I said, my name was Caitlin and I'm confirming my appointment for tomorrow. And, um, they're my induction and they had no idea what I was talking about. And so I was like, like, I literally just got chills saying that because I, I think it was like all the evidence I needed, but I still just took a second to register. They don't know. There's no such thing. There's no such induction. I didn't say anything to Caitlyn. She was still at home or at that Airbnb and she was chatting with me and I was just not giving any sort of indication that the jig was up yet. I said, listen, you knew I made the post on Facebook. I got some really great feedback, but somebody messaged me and they knew all the details about you. They knew, They knew your name, they knew your ML, like what, what your story's been. And they said it's happened to like a doula friend of theirs and that they were supporting you and it turned out to be false. And I said, not to mention the numerous other people who commented saying similar thing that either they were affected or a friend of theirs was affected and that several other people went through the exact same thing. You made this up and I confirmed it with the hospital and so I will not be continuing contact with you at this point. I said, I think you need to get some help and figure out why you're choosing to do this. And then I sent her like a handful of links for like online therapy and like pro bono support basically for mental health. I didn't give her the chance to. So she didn't say anything, huh? I, as soon as I sent it, I blocked her. Like I knew she was trying to rope me back in and I couldn't allow that. I needed to like cut the cord, um, and just end it right there. Otherwise it would be, she'd be roping me in maybe to help her with her mental health. And I'm just not equipped for that. It's almost like you stepped into this vortex and she wouldn't let you out. And like, even though you could explain some of the checking the phone and who's You know, who are you texting or is everything okay? That's paranoia, but it's also a form of control. Right? So when you were describing this, it almost sounded like you were in a cult, you know, people that are in a cult get smothered, they get sleep deprived. They have all like they're under control. You have to imagine, each time this happens, these doulas think that this was an isolated incident. But it wasn't. Slowly, the doulas from Toronto started piecing together this puzzle. Here's Shauna Hayes again, the doula from Part 1. So I went on Instagram and I started searching for doulas in Brantford. And I just started messaging people. Do you know anybody by the name of Caitlin Brock? So that's when I was like, wait a second. Maybe it wasn't quite what she was saying. Maybe it wasn't that people were quote unquote shit talking her. Maybe it was that she did this to somebody else and they were spreading the word about it. I had told every doula that I knew about this. The doulas started a group chat on Facebook. Within an hour, I think we had 12 people in that group chat and then they just kept coming like constant stream of new victims and then it would be like a couple of days would go by and we would find a new victim and a couple of days would go by and we find a new victim. Shana and the others warned one victim at a time. Sometimes even catching Caitlyn Braun in the act. I kind of laid it all out, Caitlyn Braun, she's not pregnant, don't support her kind of thing. So she saw that. And she said that her blood ran cold. She was like terrified. She quickly made some excuse, ran out the door. And she says that she drove away as though Caitlin was chasing her because she was just terrified and rightfully so, honestly, the final victim discovered that she was being duped while caring for Caitlin. There was one doula who was like at the very end, right before she got arrested, who was at a mall with Caitlin and just like Caitlin went to the bathroom or something and the doula like opened up Tik Tok and found one of our videos and that's how she found out that this was false and so she messaged that doula and was like, I'm with her right now. What do I do? And the doula was like, okay. Leave her there. Get out. Like, don't say anything. Don't do anything. Get up and walk out of there and drive away. Eventually, the doulas went on TikTok to spread the word. If you are a doula who has had any type of contact with her, please feel free to reach out to me. This is my experience with this whole doula scam thing that you may have heard of. But obviously, this isn't Caitlyn's first rodeo. You're about to hear from a former friend of Caitlyn Braun who experienced totally different lies. That's after the break. So Caitlin and I, we met in November of 2021. So not too long ago, she worked with my ex girlfriend at the time. This is Carissa Poulton, not a doula. Me and my ex broke up and Caitlin kind of like clung to me instead and decided to no longer be friends with my ex. And she was like, we're going to be friends now. And I was like, um. Like, that's okay kind of thing. And she, she didn't get the hint, but like, she was somebody that I kind of felt bad for, like, you could tell there was pieces of like trauma or whatever that kind of came up and. I just felt bad for her. I decided, okay, I'm just going to like stay friendly with her. I would always tell my friends, like I am Caitlin's friend. She is not mine. You know, like it kind of was like a very one sided friendship where I was like, I'm here to support you. If you want to hang out every once in a while, that's cool. If you need somebody to talk to, but I never went. To her with my own issues. She just didn't seem like, I don't know, I didn't trust her. And when I met her, she had told us that her mom and her dad were both dead. Time went on and we found out her mom was not dead. But Carissa didn't realize that at the time. My ex had said, Hey, like you should meet my friend, Caitlin. My dad had died a couple months before. So she was like, maybe you guys would like connect on that because both of her parents have died. And I was like, okay, sure. And then my ex came to me one day and was like, I just have a feeling that her mom isn't dead. And I was like, what do you mean? I was like, that's such a crazy thing too. assume and like, you know, I'm like, why would you ever like think that? And apparently she had gone to Caitlin's house to kind of help get rid of some of her mom's stuff and like clean up because the house was like a mess and it wasn't well taken care of. So, Then the alarm clock in Caitlyn's mom's room went off and my ex went to go in there and Caitlyn was like, no, no, no, don't go in there and like snuck in the room, shut the alarm off and then came out and then Caitlyn was like, okay, let's go, like, let's leave. It didn't feel right and just some things she had said. And then my ex looked up on the internet and was trying to find her mom's obituary. Couldn't find it. Her dad's was there. Like her dad was dead, is dead, but couldn't find anything about her mom. So my ex ended up going to Caitlyn's mom's work or where she used to work. After Caitlyn was like, yeah, you're right. She's not dead. Then it was just kind of like, well, here's my mom. We confronted her and we were like, why would you lie about something like that? And she had said her and her mom don't get along great. They kind of like butt heads a lot. So she just thought it was easier to say she was dead. Finding out her mom was really not dead was the first lie. Then came the constant medical emergencies. She always had these like health issues and like, she would need to go to the hospital for this, this, and this. Like, sometimes it was like, she had lung issues. Sometimes she said one day, like, Oh, like her jaw dislocated. And then she would have like these crazy nosebleeds. It was just like always something. And she was like, can you take me to the hospital? Like, Multiple times in a month, but not pregnancies, not pregnancies, never a pregnancy, never anything like that. There was 1 time. I had literally that morning just picked her up from the hospital for an unrelated thing. I was home for maybe two hours and she texted me saying that, that she had been assaulted by her brother who showed up at her house. And so I picked her up. I said, what do you need? And we ended up going to the hospital and getting a rape kit done. And I never found out like now found out if that was true or not, but I, It's highly unlikely. Does she even have a brother? I've never met him. I don't know if other people have, but I don't know. Caitlin Braun does in fact have a brother. I did a search to see if he was a registered sex offender in Ontario, and I couldn't find any evidence to suggest that. But you know, the problem with the liar is that it's almost impossible to know when they're telling the truth. So what, what is Caitlin's sexual orientation? She had always said she was straight. And then all of a sudden she had this interest in women and like, I'm a queer person. So I was like, great, like, whatever. I didn't really think anything of it, but I do now wonder, like, I don't know if she actually is. I don't know if it was just like, You know, I don't know, like everything's so up in the air. You never know now what's true and what isn't. So like I checked in with her the next day, she was like, yeah, fine. And just like almost pretended like it never happened. Like we were at the hospital that specific time for like 16 hours. And like, that didn't include that morning. That we were already at the hospital for something else. So just to get the kit done, we sat at the hospital for 16 hours. And then she just pretended like it didn't happen. There was another time, a couple weeks later, I hadn't been answering her texts because I was at work. And then she texted me again and said, my brother came and assaulted me again. And so then I texted her back and I was like, are you okay? What happened? She was like, oh yeah, I'm fine. And she didn't say anything else about it. So I was like, so it was just a way of getting you to respond to get your attention. And like you said, she wasn't really your friend. You were her friend. And are you suspecting anything or are you just still trying to be, you know, a good person and help her out? Yeah, I was definitely suspecting something. I didn't know what, I didn't know what was going on. I knew things weren't adding up. Like I said, she went to the hospital for a million different reasons. It makes sense why she went from you to doula. Yes. Right. Because there was nothing really in it for you in this relationship. Right. And a doula, you could pay a doula and that's their job to be your friend, to coach you through things, to be supportive of you. I mean, it actually, now it makes perfect sense. Yeah, exactly. How did you find out? Yeah. My friend, her sister saw on TikTok, and she was like, Hey, isn't this Chris's friend? And so they sent me the videos and I was like, scrolling through all of them. Like, I just ended up searching Caitlin Braun on TikTok. And I was just like in shock. I was like, I spent hours like scrolling through and looking at all the videos and like piecing together their stories with like timelines of her and I. And like, It, it was crazy. I kind of felt relieved in a way of like, Oh, I wasn't making it up. Like, I wasn't through all this. I was telling myself that I was being mean to her by like brushing her off or like not helping her or rolling my eyes when she would be like, Oh, I have to go for this. I'd be like, of course you do. Like I felt mean, but I couldn't. Because I couldn't, like, figure out why it felt wrong, or it felt off. So, like, to see this, I was like, oh, it makes sense now. Like, that's why I was having that feeling of, like, something isn't right here. Relief in a very weird way, but also, like, anger and, like, Like, I don't know, just like I felt betrayed. I felt taken advantage of, I felt like, sorry for all the, cause like, to me, my, what I had to deal with was nothing compared to what some of the doulas had to deal with. So I just felt, like, guilty about, like, I don't know, just not catching it and stopping it. I feel like I could have done more to be like, hey, what's going on here? And instead I just, like, you know, rolled my eyes. How would you know about them? No, exactly. Yeah. I mean, it just, if anything, it tells you that you should feel good that you're a good person, right? That's what a good person, you're very patient. And the sad part about this is that you might not be as trusting of a person now. Yeah, definitely. That's sad, right? Like somebody might actually need your help and you're going to be second guessing them. That's kind of the sad part about this whole thing. Definitely. It was crazy. And then maybe a week or two later, she was arrested. Kaitlyn Braun was arrested and faced 52 charges, including fraud, indecent acts, false pretense, and mischief. Ultimately, she pled guilty to 21 of those charges. She was later sentenced to two years of house arrest with electronic monitoring, followed by three years of prison. Probation. The doulas think this was a slap on the wrist. I called the fraud department in my city and they told me that it wasn't fraud. And I was like, well, it is, uh, but okay. And I gave them an earful, but there was one detective in Brantford, that one doula kept calling. She called every week. And after a few months he decided to open up an investigation. And she asked him, you know, what made you change your mind? And he said, well, he wouldn't let it go. Now, like, looking back, why was she doing this? That's a good question. I think a lot of it is just maybe if she didn't have like a, like a friend group. If she, if she needed that companionship and she, found a really twisted way to get it. I also think that part of it's for attention. In, in some of her courts, they talked about different times where it wasn't birth related, but things that she did that were basically deemed attention seeking, but they were extreme. And so I think that's probably a large portion of it is like to have all of this attention on her 24 seven. Also, she had expressed a couple of times when talking about her sister that her sister was, you know, really, like, she was like the great student, she had just gotten married, she was beautiful, she was super thin, and I think maybe there was some points of, like, jealousy there, and maybe she's used to being overshadowed by her sister, and so she wanted some attention for herself and just herself. I did get the remaining balance of my fee, by the way, so I, um, I sent her payment reminders and then I sent a very firm email to say, like, listen, my contract is tight that I'm not afraid to blow the top off this and, and expose everything. But like I spent four days with you, you owe me a lot more than what I'm charging you. So I expect the remainder of my money. I gave her a due date and I was like, I'm not budging from that. And she did, she paid me my full amount. Sitting here and listening to you, I get it, you know, like four days of This manipulation scheme that she was conducting. It's it's sick. It really is sick. And, and then you were an innocent bystander just trying to help, you know, and, and I have to, you know, put a discretion, um, a disclaimer when, when I did this podcast, because the loss of a baby or anything like that are going to listen to this, somebody who's miscarried is going to listen to this. And this is going to bring back trauma for them, but this wasn't even real. This wasn't real no, it's Such a, it's so twisted. And, and that's like Exactly, it is. A lot of people don't realize, like, even some of my family, I didn't share a lot of it, I didn't publicly share it because I had a lot of humiliation and it's like, I shouldn't have, but I did. I was embarrassed that like I had the wolf pulled over my eyes and it's kind of unfortunate that people don't take it as seriously. But I, I also understand that a lot of people don't understand. Even my my husband, like, I had to really break it down for him because he, as much as he felt for me, I don't think he really understood how it could bring on so much trauma. But there was points where she was naked in a bathtub with me next to her, massaging her back and rubbing her back and touching her while she's naked, not. In anywhere in our program, but still using a breast pump and stimulating her nipples. If we take out the aspect of our pregnancy, what is that? It's sexual, sexual assault, right? And so in any other scenario, that would have been taken way differently. But because I'm a doula and I'm around naked people, it's supposed to be okay. But the difference is she wasn't pregnant, she was pretending. All right, that's it for this series, the doulas. You know, there are a lot of doulas out there who are sharing their stories, some who are too ashamed to share their stories. And then there might be a whole bunch of doulas who may not even know that this scam was happening, but were targeted by Caitlin Braun. Who knows? If you enjoyed this series or have thoughts, leave a comment in Spotify. Spotify has this new feature where you could, uh, if you're listening to an episode and you like it, or you If you don't like it, you could leave a, a comment there, a question. I always tell people the best way to support the show is to spread the word. Tell a friend, tell a coworker, leave a review. Next time on Pretend, we're going to talk about a con artist who targeted parents at their kid's hockey club team. This guy went around telling people that he was part of the Delta Force. And that their lives were in danger. Meanwhile, he was scamming these parents, one parent in particular. He stole almost 700, 000. That's almost a million bucks. You don't want to miss this story. That's next time on Pretend. Today's episode was written by me, Javier Leyva, and it was produced by Jamila Huxable, and it's edited by the talented Puneeth Shenoy, with the podcast pundits. That's it for now. We'll talk next week.