Convicted in 2024 of 21 offences regarding defrauding doulas, criminal harassment, false pretenses and committing an indecent act, Kaitlyn Braun was on a conditional sentence when she returned to her crimes within months.
Article content
A documentary series featuring Brantford’s 27-year-old doula-duper, Kaitlyn Braun, is premiering on Oct. 7.
Advertisement 2
Article content
The three-part true crime production set to air on CBC says it includes “unparalleled access” to Braun herself through interviews.
Article content
Recommended Videos
Article content
Convicted in 2024 of 21 offences regarding defrauding doulas, criminal harassment, false pretenses and committing an indecent act, Braun was on a conditional sentence when she returned to her crimes within months.
Earlier this month, a discipline committee of the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers reprimanded Braun, who was a registered social worker, ordered her to pay costs for the hearing and ensured an order will be placed on the college’s public register about her crimes.
Braun signed an agreement that she would permanently surrender her certificate and not practise social work anywhere again.
“The registrant’s crimes strike at the core values of the social work profession: honesty, integrity and respect for the intrinsic worth of all people,” said the committee’s decision.
Advertisement 3
Article content
“She exploited her victims’ trust and empathy, in some cases requiring them to attend on her, unpaid, over multiple days while she feigned labour and, in some cases, subjecting them to further indignities, including coercing massages while she was partially or fully unclothed, using a breast pump in their presence and sending them a photo of a stillborn baby.”
The committee also noted Braun falsely reported to police that she had been sexually assaulted by a doula and went to the Brantford General Hospital to have a rape kit done. That caused police to start an investigation.
“This conduct did not merely happen to involve deceit; it was deceit, sustained and repeated.”
The college also said several of Braun’s victims left the doula profession or reduced their practises after encounters with Braun.
She admitted to seeking or hiring those who professionally support pregnant women through their labour, and feeding them a highly emotional tale of sexual assault and pregnancy that sometimes culminated in the death of an imaginary baby or even her own death.
Advertisement 4
Article content
With her second conviction in June 2025, Braun was ordered to finish a conditional sentence in jail and then go to prison for a three-year-term.
CBC’s production – Doula: A True Crime – includes interviews with many of the estimated 40 doulas who supported Braun through her faked labour or birth.
During Braun’s second sentencing, Justice Joseph Fiorucci first hesitated at the idea of sending the woman to prison for breaching probation conditions but eventually declared “We must separate the offender from society.”
Fiorucci noted Braun had committed sexual acts after enlisting the women to help her during her supposed labour.
Braun’s constant connecting with doulas near and far led to a huge support group forming online to warn doulas about the Brantford woman who seemed to have some sort of birthing fetish.
Doula: A True Crime is written and directed by Nathalie Bibeau and will stream free on CBC Gem, starting Oct. 7. Episodes will air weekly at 8 p.m. on CBC.
SGamble@postmedia.com
@EXPSGamble
Article content