*Content warning: Pregnancy loss, miscarriage, death of a child, infant loss, death, birth trauma, medical trauma, medical neglect, racism, mature and stressful themes. *Free + Confidential Resources + Safety Tips: somethingwaswrong.com/resources Moms Advocating For MomsS23 survivors Markeda, Kristen and Amanda have created a nonprofit, Moms Advocating for Moms, in hopes to create a future where maternal well-being is prioritized, disparities are addressed, and every mother has the resources and support she needs to thrive: https://www.momsadvocatingformoms.org/take-actionhttps://linktr.ee/momsadvocatingformoms Please sign the survivors petitions below to improve midwifery education and regulation in Texashttps://www.change.org/p/improve-midwifery-education-and-regulation-in-texas?recruiter=1336781649&recruited_by_id=74bf3b50-fd98-11ee-9e3f-a55a14340b5a&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&utm_medium=copylink *Sources:American College of Nurse Midwiveshttps://midwife.org/ American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)https://www.acog.org/ A Midwife’s Approach to Getting Labor Startedhttps://avivaromm.com/labor-induction-low-natural-approaches-midwife-md/ Bathing Your Babyhttps://www.healthychildren.org/English/ages-stages/baby/bathing-skin-care/Pages/Bathing-Your-Newborn.aspx Fetal presentation before birthhttps://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/pregnancy-week-by-week/in-depth/fetal-positions/art-20546850 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/php/resources/health-insurance-portability-and-accountability-act-of-1996-hipaa.html#:~:text=The%20Health%20Insurance%20Portability%20and,from%20disclosure%20without%20patient's%20consent. March of Dimeshttps://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/about-us National Midwifery Institutehttps://www.nationalmidwiferyinstitute.com/midwifery North American Registry of Midwives (NARM)https://narm.org/ Office for Civil Rightshttps://www.hhs.gov/ocr/index.html State investigating Dallas birth center and midwives, following multiple complaints from patientshttps://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/investigates/state-investigating-dallas-birth-center-midwives-following-multiple-complaints-from-patients/287-ea77eb18-c637-44d4-aaa2-fe8fd7a2fcef Texas Administrative Code Title 26, Chapter 503 - Birthing Centershttps://regulations.justia.com/states/texas/title-26/part-1/chapter-503/subchapter-d/section-503-34/ Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR)https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/ Texas Health and Human Services Birthing Centershttps://www.hhs.texas.gov/providers/health-care-facilities-regulation/birthing-centersWhat Happens at Appointments Once My Baby is Born?https://www.communitycaremidwives.com/faq.html#:~:text=Midwives%20provide%20care%20for%20both,six%20weeks%20after%20the%20birth.&text=breastfeeding%20support.,their%20family%20doctor%20for%20care. Zucker School of Medicine, Amos Grunebaum, MDhttps://faculty.medicine.hofstra.edu/13732-amos-grunebaum/publications *SWW S23 Theme Song & Artwork: Thank you so much to Emily Wolfe for covering Glad Rag’s original song, U Think U for us this season!Hear more from Emily Wolfe:On SpotifyOn Apple Musichttps://www.emilywolfemusic.com/instagram.com/emilywolfemusicGlad Rags: https://www.gladragsmusic.com/ The S23 cover art is by the Amazing Sara StewartFollow Something Was Wrong:Website: somethingwaswrong.com IG: instagram.com/somethingwaswrongpodcastTikTok: tiktok.com/@somethingwaswrongpodcast Follow Tiffany Reese:Website: tiffanyreese.me IG: instagram.com/lookiebooSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What is the emotional journey of a birth photographer turned surrogate?
Hi, my name is Brittany. I was a birth photographer out of origins. I rented space from Gina and Caitlin. That began 2015. I had a birth photographer for my oldest son. Capturing the emotions from his birth was so special to me, and I just wanted to be involved with birth. I love it. I have photographed over 200 births, probably close to 300 now.
I was a surrogate for Caitlin Wages in July of 2017 while officing out of origins as a birth photographer. I worked very closely with Gina Thompson and Caitlin Wages during this time.
Speaking to the relationship that you had with Caitlin regarding being her surrogate, how did that conversation come about?
It was a big decision. I actually had a dream about being a surrogate. It is something that I had thought about many times. My business partner, who I was doing photography with at the time, and I were moving in to our media room and office upstairs at the Burst Center. Gina and Caitlin were getting the birth center all set up.
I passed Caitlin in the hall and saw that they had set up one of the birth rooms and I said, oh my gosh, if I'm ever a surrogate, I want to deliver at the birth center because it's so beautiful. She stopped and she said, I'm going through files looking for a client that might want to be my surrogate. That sparked the conversation.
And then a few months later, my husband and myself and Caitlin and her husband, we were all sitting down at dinner, going over logistics and decided to move forward. They had just lost their son and were grieving and we were all hopeful to bring back a little bit of hope and love to their lives.
What was the process like becoming pregnant as a surrogate?
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Chapter 2: How does surrogacy affect personal and professional relationships?
I have actually blocked out a lot of that because it was pretty traumatic for me. I do remember that it was a lot. We went through psyche vows. We had to do contracts. We each had our own lawyers. We did not go through an agency. We did one set of hormones. I actually had to wean my son early too, which is something that I look back on and I'm a little sad about.
Every round of hormones was brutal. We get to the day of transfer. It was a fresh transfer and we find out that none of the eggs were viable. So that did not work out and I had to abruptly stop the hormones. So that was awful. That was torture on my body. I did not feel comfortable complaining to Caitlin or anything. I felt like, what do you have to complain to her about?
She is devastated of her own accord. And then we did another transfer. So all new hormones start all over again, six months or whatnot later. And then that resulted in her baby that was born in July of 2017. It felt like I was getting good care. I rotated just like they did with their clients.
So I saw Caitlin for one appointment, then Gina, and then their other midwife that was working with them at the time. I felt like they did a good job during prenatal. I don't feel like anything was off. Caitlin wanted to do massive amounts of blood work. She was overly protective of not even me. It was her son that she was overly protective of.
I think at one point I was taking 36 vitamins per day, but I don't feel like anything was off during pregnancy. There were no red flags for me at all. Caitlin was extremely anxious to meet her son, rightfully so. I was anxious, as any pregnant woman is. She decided she wanted to induce the midwife way, which is stripping membranes, doing the breast pump, all of those things.
I kind of had some hesitations, but no alarm bells going off or anything like that. I was over 39 weeks. She's stripping membranes and I'm doing the breast pump. Finally, she gets me into labor. My contractions have been pretty regular. Nothing was really painful. It gets to later in the day and he keeps putting his hand up above his head and they get him to put his hand down.
They were not too terribly concerned. Caitlin went to do a cervical check. She's doing cervical checks for her own baby. She feels his nose instead of the back top of his noggin. She doesn't say anything to me. She or the other midwife to feel. And they say, that's a nose. And then the other one, the third person goes in and feels too. And they all agree.
And that's when they start saying, we have to go right now to Texas Health Alliance. That's like two miles down the road. While they're on the phone, I'm asking, can I do hands and knees? Like, is there anything I can do to help? I've been to lots of births. I know that there's stuff you can do to get a baby to turn. They're like, yeah, yeah, you can do that.
But they're all so preoccupied in their little huddle that they're not paying any attention to me. They're all freaking out about the baby because Caitlin has already lost one child and they can't let her lose another one.
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Chapter 3: What challenges and issues arise in midwifery practices?
I remember them telling me at one point that his neck might break. And then we get there and the OB says, yep, we're going to take you back. I had an emergency cesarean with her son. He was born around 4 a.m., Gina and Caitlin brought him into my hospital room. They got a different room. Well, they brought the entire family, but I was exhausted. I honestly have no recollection of that happening.
I remember it from pictures. That's all. The next morning, around 10, my husband wasn't there. He had gone home to check on the kids, something. Gina and Caitlin come in with the baby and let me know that they're checking out with the baby against medical advice. Because midwives can provide care for babies until six weeks and they didn't feel like they needed to be there. But I was there.
I think that I ended up being able to leave by that night. Maybe I did have to stay. I don't remember. The surrogacy is so blurry to me because I have blocked it out. That is how I survived working with Caitlin. Whenever I look back on that pregnancy, I'm like, wow, that pregnancy wasn't handled properly.
But it all felt like rainbows and sunshine and butterflies because I was getting all of this attention. My care providers were Caitlin and Gina and then their other midwife partner. That's not right. Why would the mother be my care provider? I have my records pulled up, but these are Origins records. Origins did not keep records of when you're in the hospital.
They track what's going on at Origins. That's it. Postpartum care at Origins was a two to three day visit, a two week visit, and then a six week visit. We did a two to three day visit at the birth center and Caitlin did a herbal bath afterwards. Let me tell you about the bath. It contains herbs that are supposed to be healing for the mom.
After giving birth, baby's not supposed to have a bath immediately. But Caitlin used it for a marketing ploy and to use the beauty of the birth center to lure people in to something that it shouldn't have been. 18 months or at least a year later, they still had one more embryo left. I felt like so many eyes were on me and everybody knew there was one embryo left. And I couldn't tell her no.
And we did that transfer. I did blood work for my progesterone at the end of August of 2018. And that resulted in a miscarriage. It was traumatic going through a miscarriage. That was the only miscarriage I've ever had. I think that the miscarriage did slightly change my view of her because she acted like it didn't even happen. And that was bizarre.
I'm miscarrying someone else's baby and they barely acknowledged it. Another thing is Caitlin let all of my medical bills go to collections after the C-section. They were all in my name because I was the patient.
Your agreement was that she was supposed to pay them.
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Chapter 4: How do personal experiences highlight systemic issues in healthcare?
Caitlin takes credit for everything, always. Caitlin often spout out statistics that I could never find any information on afterwards. She just would say things that often afterwards, Gina and I would look at each other like, where'd she get that one from? In November of 2018, I started working at Origins. I was the office manager from 2018 to March 2021 at Fort Worth only.
And then I was the executive director from March 2021 to January of 2024 only. I would do paperwork. I had access to charts. You have to have them sign that waiver. The document that Kristen's like, I should have never signed that. They've always told me, this is all the stuff that you signed in the hospital. And so I didn't question it, right?
I'm like, well, I don't know what I signed in the hospital. If I ever do go to the hospital, I never read that stuff anyway. So what do I know?
Some clients had reported that all of their notes and their chart were made under the same login and also several had changes made to them weeks and months after treatment. I'm wondering if you have any insight that you could offer us
So the way Maternity Neighborhood was handled was that each midwife at hire was given a login. Then Dallas had a main login and Fort Worth had a main login. Maternity Neighborhood had one overall system for both locations that the main logins could toggle between the systems. Only the admin is supposed to have the main login.
Gina and Caitlin chose to put the main login in our password document for everyone to have. I don't remember why this was in there. I feel like it was needed along the way for something, but somehow it ended up staying on there. And every time the password got changed, it was updated on the password document and everyone had access to it. So it got saved on all the computers.
I am the one that gave everybody logins. I did all the onboarding for everyone. So every single midwife had their own individual login to Maternity Neighborhood and they were told explicitly to use their own login. If they were not using their login, I would tell them repeatedly to use their own login. We also had reports that were run or were supposed to be run by the clinical director
It would tell you if the charts needed to be resolved for something, like if they weren't assigned or things like that. So this was a good indication if that login was being used too much. If I saw this report was using that login too much, then I would try to go through the chart and see because you can match it to the schedule and see who's using that login and I would get on them.
Thing is, the midwives didn't like it when I did that because they think that I'm micromanaging them or whatnot. But I did not like it when they did this because it's not good for charting. It's not good for clients, all the things.
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Chapter 5: How does the shift in healthcare practices impact patient care?
Can you recall what most clients were unhappy with?
I mean, they were different things. A big thing that really, really bothered the patient advocate and myself was miscarriage follow up. Because of the way the collective was that there's three midwives or whatever, no one would follow up. fall off the radar. We would get complaints all the time. My midwife just forgot about me. She abandoned me. Y'all don't even care about me.
So that was really frustrating. And that was one thing that we felt really strongly about. And the patient advocate and I worked really hard to create a system to put in place for the midwives. We had to do that as admin staff. And we actually put in place to where the admin was calling and following up.
Because at the end of the day, I said, I don't think that patients care who's calling them as long as someone is calling them. So I was telling my admin staff, you're going to call, put it on your to-do list. If you see that there's a miscarriage, you call them and just say, I'm just checking in with you. I'm going to go ahead and schedule you an appointment with a midwife. Is that okay?
Are you comfortable coming in? Or would you prefer that we just schedule a phone call? I always got that question. How many babies have you lost? And for the first several years, I was able to say we've never lost any moms or babies. But I just remember at some point, someone saying there's been all these neonatal deaths at Origins in the past two years.
And as the executive director that worked directly with Gina and Caitlin saying, what? To not know that? I knew of a few, but not that that many had happened in such a short amount of time. All of them were at Origins Dallas. I would hear about them in passing and I was given a little bit of details.
I do remember one of these bursts specifically because several people had access to our cameras, but I'm the main one that knew how to work them. I had them set up.
Security cameras?
Yes. Whenever we had one of these fetal demises, I had to check the camera. In an emergency, a midwife is entering things quickly into a chart or even paper charting, and then they have to go back and enter it into maternity neighborhood later.
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