Something Was Wrong - S23 Ep8: Life and Death

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

*Content warning: infant loss, death, birth trauma, medical trauma and neglect, fraud, scams.   *Free + Confidential Resources + Safety Tips: somethingwaswrong.com/resources   Moms Advocating For MomsMarkeda, 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://linktr.ee/momsadvocatingformoms Please sign the survivors petition below to improve midwifery education and regulation in Texas: https://tinyurl.com/SWWS23 *Sources:American College of Nurse Midwiveshttps://midwife.org/ American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG)https://www.acog.org/ Balance billing: Independent Dispute Resolutionhttps://www.tdi.texas.gov/medical-billing/index.html#:~:text=Texas%20and%20federal%20laws%20prohibit,with%20a%20surprise%20medical%20bill. CMS, The No Surprises Act’s Prohibitions on Balancing Billinghttps://www.cms.gov/files/document/a274577-1a-training-1-balancing-billingfinal508.pdf Do Certified Professional Midwives Need Medical Malpractice Insurance? Understanding the Legal Requirementshttps://www.rcins.com/do-certified-professional-midwives-need-medical-malpractice-insurance-understanding-the-legal-requirements/#:~:text=Texas%3A%20In%20contrast%2C%20Texas%20does,to%20carry%20medical%20malpractice%20insurance. How Expanding the Role of Midwives in U.S. Health Care Could Help Address the Maternal Health Crisishttps://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2023/may/expanding-role-midwives-address-maternal-health-crisis#:~:text=Midwives%20are%20licensed%20health%20care,women%20at%20double%20the%20rate. Implementation of 2015 Sunset Recommendationshttps://www.sunset.texas.gov/public/uploads/files/reports/Implementation%20of%202015%20Sunset%20Recommendations.pdf The Legislative Process in Texashttps://tlc.texas.gov/docs/legref/legislativeprocess.pdf National Midwifery Institutehttps://www.nationalmidwiferyinstitute.com/midwifery North American Registry of Midwives (NARM)https://narm.org/ Practicing Medicine Without a Licensehttps://www.criminaldefenselawyer.com/resources/practicing-medicine-without-a-license.htm#:~:text=Many%20states%20make%20it%20a,fine%20of%20up%20to%20%2410%2C000. Regulation of Birth Attendants in Texashttps://texashomebirth.com/regulation-2/ Texas Board of Nursing https://www.bon.texas.gov/ Texas Department of Insurance https://www.tdi.texas.gov/ Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR)https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/ TDLR, Midwives Penalties and Sanctionshttps://www.tdlr.texas.gov/enforcement/midsanctions.htm Texas Health and Human Serviceshttps://www.hhs.texas.gov/ Texas Medical Board (TMB)https://www.tmb.state.tx.us/ State investigating Dallas birth center and midwives, following multiple complaints from patients, by Morgan Young for WFAA (March 29, 2024) https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/investigates/state-investigating-dallas-birth-center-midwives-following-multiple-complaints-from-patients/287-ea77eb18-c637-44d4-aaa2-fe8fd7a2fcef What Do OB/GYN Nurse Practitioners Do?https://nursa.com/specialty-post/what-do-ob-gyn-nurse-practitoners-do#:~:text=OB/GYN%20nurse%20practitioners%20are,not%20licensed%20to%20deliver%20babies. What Is the Texas Medical Malpractice Statute of Limitations?https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-the-texas-statute-limitations-medical-malpractice-lawsuits.html#:~:text=Like%20a%20lot%20of%20states,and%20Remedies%20Code%20section%2074.251. Which states have the highest maternal mortality rates?https://usafacts.org/articles/which-states-have-the-highest-maternal-mortality-rates/ Why Won’t an Attorney Take My Texas Medical Malpractice Case?https://www.hastingsfirm.com/your-case-and-texas-law/#:~:text=Texas%20law%20has%20made%20medical,and%20many%20hours%20of%20deposition. Zucker School of Medicine, Amos Grunebaum, MDhttps://faculty.medicine.hofstra.edu/13732-amos-grunebaum/publications *SWW S23 Theme Song & Artwork: Hear more from Emily Wolfe:On Spotify // On Apple Music // https://www.emilywolfemusic.com/ // instagram.com/emilywolfemusicGlad Rags: https://www.gladragsmusic.com/ The S23 cover art is by the Amazing Sara Stewart

Something Was Wrong is intended for mature audiences. This season contains discussions of medical negligence, birth trauma, and infant loss, which may be upsetting for some listeners. For a full content warning, sources, and resources, please visit the episode notes. Opinions shared by the guests of the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of myself, broken cycle media, and wondering. The podcast in any linked materials should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice.

Origins' birth and wellness owners and midwives, Caitlin Wages and Gina Thompson have not responded to our requests for comment. Additionally, midwives Jennifer Crawford and Elizabeth Fuell have also not returned our request for comment. This season is dedicated with love to Malik. Here's Kristen. Me and Marquita began to meet up. We poured over her records and my records. I was trying to understand where legally they had messed up and where they had violated a direct code from their bylaws.

And then also trying to help Marquita with that as well because what happened to her son was absolutely preventable. And I also wanted her to get recourse, knowing that I couldn't get recourse myself. criminally or through malpractice insurance. We poured over her records and my records. They went so far as to falsify my records by signing off on my records saying that they were Jennifer's preceptor. I had never met Gina or Caitlin ever. They were never in clinic with me. As the survivors investigated Origins' birth and wellness passed further,

one of the most eye-opening discoveries centered around owner Gina's first year as a licensed midwife. Gina Phillips became a licensed midwife on March 28, 2013. By the end of that same year, the Texas Midwifery Board would receive at least one complaint about Gina's services and began the review process. Then, on October 9, 2014, Gina was sent a notice of violation that stated Gina rendered services on or about December 13, 2013 to April 6th, 2014, that allegedly violated several of their codes. Three of the alleged violations in her review were related to prenatal care guidelines that require midwives to recommend referral to a doctor when specific conditions exist.

The specific conditions that were related to Gina's alleged violations were, quote, prior cesarean section and psychiatric illness, end quote, She also received a violation for allegedly not referring clients to another clinician in the event of other conditions or symptoms assessed by a midwife exercising reasonable skill and knowledge that could adversely affect the mother or fetus. Two more of Gina's violations were related to guidelines surrounding labor and delivery that require a midwife, quote, to initiate an immediate transfer when a birthing parent or infant present a non-reassuring

fetal heart rate pattern and any other condition or symptom which could threaten the life of the mother or fetus, end quote. According to the docket highlighting the Texas Midwifery Board's disciplinary actions, Gina was notified that her license was being suspended, and she was going to be put on professional probation in October of 2014. However, Gina signed a statement saying she did not accept the proposal by the complaint review committee and requested an informal conference and formal hearing. On February 16, 2015, a meeting was held and disciplinary terms were agreed upon. Gina ultimately agreed that over the following year of her probated suspension, that she would not

supervise any apprentices or students, and she would be supervised by a preceptor for 10 or more births. She also agreed to submit the charts of the first 10 births she attended in her probationary period and submit evidence of one year of supervised practice. Lastly, Gina had to submit proof to the Texas Midwifery Board of taking three hours of continued education, including charting, hypertensive disorders in pregnancy, and vaginal births after cesarean, as well as additional education hours required for licensure renewal. What makes these findings even more interesting is that Caitlin Wages, eventual co-owner of Origins, became a licensed midwife on October 10, 2014, only one day exactly after Gina received her first notice of violation from the Texas

Midwifery Board. Considering the fact that Gina allegedly acted as Caitlin Wages preceptor, while Caitlin earned her licensure, that also implies, that Gina's violations occurred while she acted as a preceptor. Relatedly, it's important to highlight that the North American Registry of Midwives specifically requires midwives that serve as registered preceptors to have at least three years of experience beyond entry-level certified professional midwives requirements or having served as a primary midwife for at least 50 births beyond the entry-level certified professional midwife requirements. This is how they started out their career together.

It tells me a lot. There's something so very disturbing about this because they seem to feel they can just get away with it all. It's an unfortunate foreshadowing to what we know now that you obviously all didn't know then. Yes. What we found for midwifery in the state of Texas is that there are many ways to become a midwife. And it's really based off of relying on people's needs. integrity. You're relying on the accountability of the people around you. There is documentation. The preceptor will sign off on the things that you've done throughout your training, but who's to say you

actually did those things? There's no hierarchy there. There's no one checking to make sure that you did what you said you did. The board which prosecuted her then was dissolved. So Gina's probably one of the last cases that they ever made any kind of disciplinary action on. At every point that me, Marquita, or Amanda had found something, we brought it to the group. So if anybody wanted to, those resources were there for you, not that you had to. And I always made that very clear in the post. You don't have to be on this bandwagon to bring justice to origins, but if you want to, here are your resources.

We started sharing information from an ex-employee in the group about how Origins had been stealing from patients essentially, charging them more than what they owed per their insurance and then not giving any refunds. Origins charged globally and you paid all of your fees up front. You paid what they quoted you would be charged through your insurance and that was it. So if you were overcharged or you paid more for certain services that you shouldn't have paid. for or they messed up the billing somewhere somehow, unless you went back and looked through your verification of benefits, you went through your insurance bill and then compared it to your bill from origins, you wouldn't know that you'd been overcharged. In total, I paid over $3,000 to Origins, which was well over the amount that I owed them. The financial director for Origins'

birth and wellness. She was a placenta encapsulator. Well, she balance billed people regularly. Balance billing is typically done for out-of-network people. Balance billing occurs when a health plan doesn't pay the full amount charged by an out-of-network provider, and the provider sends the patient a bill for the remaining amount. What essentially balance billing is, is you're not allowed to charge a patient more than what their insurance finds them responsible for even if it's out of network. No surprise bills essentially is what the state of Texas has declared. How were you guys able to determine that Origins was doing this? I had an anonymous person reach out to me who used to be an employee of Origins and they knew a lot about insurance

and they knew a lot about how origins operated behind the scenes. And they walked me through how to look at my bill, what information I needed to get from my insurance and from origins to be able to assess whether or not I had been overcharged. Also, I have text messages where the financial director, specifically on my case, instructed an employee to balance bill me. Like she uses those words, balance bill it,

which I thought was absolutely. was. So I was owed a refund. I sent many emails and left many voicemails. She never responded to me outside of sending me two itemized bills, one which stated the amount that I paid to origins, and then she sent me another one. After I had asked for insurance audits to see the claims that they filed, she sent me another bill stating that I owed them $400, but they weren't going to pursue it. They charged me like $350 for an office visit, which was actually a phone call with Jennifer, an unlicensed student. And so in my emails, I was like, you can't charge me $350 for an office visit that was a phone call with an unlicensed, uncredentialed provider. I asked for a meeting

with her. I asked to speak with her on the phone. She just point blank. Did not respond to my emails. Nobody ever followed up with you about that. No, not at all. Do you know if any of the other women have had run-ins with her, so to speak? Yes, actually. Everyone started asking for their medical records in which the bookkeeper was proposing a $25 admin fee for people to receive their medical records, which were digital documents, by the way. It wasn't like she was printing and mailing out packets of medical information. Not everybody got the email saying that they would have to pay $25 for their medical records. And of course, that was circulated around.

And women who had had bad experiences and women who had had good experiences were like, WTF. This isn't fair. I never received my records. I did ask multiple times. And they refused. I would like to point out that my doctor, she gave me the, the records that were sent to her. I did file a report with TDI, which is the Texas Department of Insurance for Balance Billing. TDI is responsible for insurance fraud and stuff like that.

Whoever I talked to on the phone, I let them know. I was like, listen, they did this for however long. In the last year alone, they had owed, I believe, $100,000 in refunds. refunds for over billing? Yes, overpaying. And the guy that I talked to through TDI said that's something that you're going to have to take up with your individual insurance. You're going to have to tell them that they balance bill to you. I was like, what is my insurance going to do about that? My insurance isn't going to give me the money that they took for me and didn't refund to me.

So that was kind of a dead end, which was really disappointing. Although the survivors were being met with many obstacles in their pursuit of justice against Origins' birth and wellness center, they did not give up. They began learning more about the ways birth center's physical buildings are governed in the state of Texas. They learned that Texas Health and Human Services, which is often referred to as HHS, establishes the state licensing requirements and the operational standards for birthing centers. In their research, the women discovered that every building in Dallas is required to possess a certificate of occupancy or a CO, as it's often called. According to the city's government website, a certificate of occupancy is a document provided by the city that proves a structure is habitable, based on its legal use, type of property, and meets all housing and building codes. Texas doesn't have any laws or requirements on what kind of building can be considered a birth center.

To open up any business or to even operate a business, you must have a CEO or subject to being shut down. HHS is the body that regulates birth centers. I filed a complaint with HHS and they did an investigation and there was nothing done, even though there is records of Jennifer operating without a license and things like that. like that. Mostly the state looks for cleanliness and make sure things are labeled the way that they're supposed to biological waste is taken care of in the appropriate manner and so on and so forth. They don't really look into patient negligence and things of that nature. Here's Amanda. Origins wasn't operating their business how they were supposed to be within the city of

Dallas or the city of Fort Worth. They had been operating in Fort Worth for nearly a decade without a certificate of occupancy. No city inspections. I think they had two remodels in that time and no permits with the city, nothing. They had filled in a pool in the backyard of the birth center. All of those things require permits. They didn't have a certificate of occupancy for the clinic in Dallas. Their clinic was shut down for over a month because they did not have a certificate of occupancy, and they had to make major, major repairs to Fort Worth. Here's Kristen again. We started digging into Texas admin code for midwives.

I realized that I could report to TDRR, Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. The same committee regulates sanitarians, barbers, and tow truck drivers regulate direct-entry midwives. It was really shocking because I was an esthetician. I was licensed by TDLR and the fact that being an esthetician, someone who gives people facials and waxes people, was regulated by the same body who regulates direct entry midwives who are literally in charge of life and death. Being a first time pregnant person, what I didn't understand was that there are a lot of things that happened to your body during the course of your pregnancy, labor, and delivery. There's a whole slew of unfathomable things that I could list off to you that can occur during pregnancy, labor and delivery, even if you had a perfectly healthy pregnancy, that would put you or your child at risk.

And for a body such as TDRR to be overseeing and determining what kind of education is best, what kind of practices are best in determining the consequences for if you steer outside of your practice scope, it's laughable. How this works is that you go to TDRR's website. There's a complaint portal or you can go to the midwifery licensee section of their website and then there's an area for you to file a complaint. So you can file a complaint online or written. I actually didn't know that you could file a complaint online. So I wrote out my complaint and then submitted it. But then it wasn't getting any traction like I didn't hear back from TDRLR. So I went back and did that online complaint. And that's kind of when things started rolling. Me and Marquita submitted our complaints just a couple weeks apart from

each other, maybe not even that. So how that process works is they accept your complaint. You get an email or even a mailed in letter stating that we have received your complaint. The next Next step here is going to be an investigation. An investigator will call you to record details of your complaint. That's what happened. She asked me to recount my story and tell her all the areas where things had gone wrong. I told her my story top to bottom, including labs and medical discrepancies, things of that nature. She recorded that and then it gets investigated. during the investigation period, they look at all of the records that you send over to them. They ask you to submit any records that you have pertaining to origins, and then they will also ask you for a release of medical records so they can contact the facility and the hospital that you are seen at. I'm not sure what entirely goes into the investigation process. I believe that they fact check, and then they compare your story to their admin code.

There are specific admin codes for midwives that they cannot violate, and if they violate it, it's a direct breach of TDRR's policy, then they will start an internal prosecution for this. Let's say I charted incorrectly. The disciplinary action for that would be $500 and a continued education on proper charting. That is just an example. That's not a quote directly from the admin code. or even from TDLR's rules, which are available on their website. You can see disciplinary action and its correspondence to the violation that it cites

in what those typically look like. From my own story, I mean, some of the violations were like some of the worst things that you can do in terms of violating any of those rules or admin code. I believe this took a few months of investigation, and then finally, it was submitted to prosecution. That was the next step. My case has been in prosecution for a year now, and there still is no conclusion to what is going to happen. I have reached out to TDRLR several times in regards to new things that I learned about my case.

For example, when I found out that the financial director of origins was balance billing people willingly and knowingly and then refusing to send me my medical records. I sent a long email to the prosecutor in my case stating that I had a few concerns. My complaint against Jennifer Crawford suggested that she was practicing medicine without a license during the duration of my pregnancy, not just with me, but with every patient that was at origin's birth and wellness until 522 when Jennifer was licensed by the state. I had concerned about how TDRR will handle that because practicing medicine without a license in the state of Texas is a felony. You can be jailed for up to 10 years of your life.

It's a very serious thing. However, that particular criminal charge is overseen by the Texas Medical Board, and it is used on people who are practicing medicine, such as nurses or doctors, without a license. Technically, midwives are not in their jurisdiction. There would need to be a thorough investigation of every patient's records from when Jennifer allegedly started working for oral. origins to determine the severity of the policies in the admin cone that she violated.

She was seeing many people unattended without her preceptor. When me and Marquito were discovering this, we had a lot of hope in the system that if we made these reports, that the right things would happen and we would receive justice. TDRR spoke to me directly about my case. So this was their response to me. Thank you for your email. I am working on your case right now to answer a few questions that you asked previously. Our role at TDLR is purely on license violations rather than criminal activity, even though they can be intertwined.

I'm aware that there are other state agencies looking into this matter as well. I do not have any details. You are always welcome to contact law enforcement and make a report to them in regards to criminal activity. We do have subject matter experts that we contract with to help us determine violations when needed. We also have rules relating to billing and medical records, which we will look at when determining any violations. My response to that email was, thank you. From what I read in this email, TDRR is not required to report criminal activity that has been found in complaints, question mark. Also, our subject matter experts only licensed midwives. Then I stated that seems very strange,

such as in my case, I had severe preclampsia and other high-risk conditions in my pregnancy, licensed midwives specialize in low-risk pregnancy are not trained to assess high-risk conditions, therefore they are not experts. They are not experts in prenatal pathology. Is TDLR qualified to assess these medical intricacies of maternal and neonatal health? I understand TDLR's purview is to oversee licensing policies, but there is so much at stake in these complaints. My prosecutor's response to that was, based on the limited authority that our agency has,

we do not have a requirement to report suspected claims, criminal activity. However, there is nothing that prohibits you from being able to file a complaint to law enforcement. You are welcome to share that TDLR has an open administrative case as well. We use subject matter experts that are licensed by TDLR as it would be improper to use medical experts with greater education than our licensees. We prefer the case to be reviewed by someone with the same expertise in training as our licensees to properly evaluate the standard of care and whether it was violated in this case. TDRR license experts, to know the applicable laws and rules from the administrative licensing side,

whereas using an expert that has a different regulatory agency with different rules and laws than ours would be inappropriate. So it is another licensed midwife who are overseeing these cases. I'll tell you why it doesn't make sense. You have people who do not specialize, who are not trained or educated in the pathology, of these abnormalities associated with maternal or fetal health. reviewing these cases, reviewing these charts that are often incomplete. My charts are not complete. People who were charting were leaving out symptoms. Even my BP was different in a couple of cases.

And I think it's important to note that per norm, the North American Registry of Midwives, they state that every midwife has to come up with their own guidelines for their practice. So of these contracted expert witnesses, you have people who by and large have their own standards. There is no standard that they're both looking at together and going, ooh, that is preeclampsia. Is it preeclampsia to one? Sure. Is it preeclampsia to another? Maybe not. I don't have a lot of trust in that part. And they completely will not hire any doctors or certified nurse midwives or anybody who is an expert in those fields to look at these cases. I think it is inappropriate to have people who potentially don't understand the pathologies that they're looking at making judgment on these cases. I find

that inappropriate and actually unethical because you're not getting true justice here. The midwifery community in Texas is very small. And the midwives that are on the board that are usually used as expert witnesses, if you're friends with that, expert witness and you know that they're an expert witness. Was your case being taken seriously? Is that friend just going to push your case along or close it because they were good friends with the midwife that you were complaining against? We realized that TDLR doesn't have the resources that they need to be able to really investigate these types of cases adequately. We were very disappointed when we found out that TDLR specializes in giving admin fines and things like that for violated terms,

they don't charge criminally. They can send off cases to the OAG or to a law enforcement agency, but they're not required to, from what I was told. So it's up to their discretion to decide what kind of accountability, disciplinary actions are, adequate for these types of situations. I went through the hoops. I contacted Dallas PD. I contacted the Texas Medical Board. I also tried to connect with the district attorney's office. I also contacted the OAG's office, all of which said that it is up to the licensing agency to submit reports and to lift these cases up for criminal prosecution. I could not do that myself. The Dallas PD was like,

that's not something that we can do for you. The TMB, the Texas Medical Board, said they are not under our jurisdiction. We cannot prosecute midwives because we do not regulate them. The DA's office said that the report cannot come from a civilian. It would have to come from a law enforcement agency or some sort of licensing entity such as TDLR. So I believe that TDLR has the capacity. They just can choose, I don't know all the ins and outs of what that looks like and what would prevent TDLR from raising a case like this to people who can prosecute criminally, which I think that's something needs to be looked at within itself.

I think especially a state entity, if you are presented with a complaint or a case, I think that is your duty to your consumers to report that crime because it leaves people like us, civilians with no restitution. I also discovered that if Jennifer is found guilty of what she did, the maximum disciplinary action she'd receive would be up to a year of revocation of her license and admin fees, however much they decided would be adequate for the situation. So that was very disappointing for us. We really had a lot of hope and stock put into TDRR. So you submitted in writing and you submitted on the website. You have spoken with them on the phone. You have emailed with them a few times and checked in on things.

But as of right now, they're still, quote, investigating it. Yes. There was a larger investigation that was opened for all of Origins cases that is ongoing as well right now. and so I think my case may be hung up until that one comes to a resolution as well. I reported origins for committing Medicaid fraud. I want to say March of last year. Maybe it was a little later than that. But I contacted the Medicaid fraud unit in Dallas and spoke to one of their sergeants.

Essentially, I told them they have been using newborn test kits that are for Medicaid patients only. When you order newborn screening kits, you can order for self-pay and insured patients and then you can order for Medicaid patients. Medicaid patients are completely free. They were ordering the Medicaid ones, using them on self-pay and insured clients, and then charging insurance and those self-pay clients for those free Medicaid newborn screening kits that they were receiving from the state. He was like, how do you know this? So I told him my story and some of the stories of the people that I know gave information about basically the fraudulent activities that origins and been part of. Well, this sergeant wanted to take on the patient negligence and other

things and began interviewing several different people who had negative outcomes with origins. But there was a jurisdiction issue where he was only supposed to do investigations on Medicaid fraud, and it was outside of his jurisdiction to also investigate patient abuse and negligence and insurance fraud. So he went to TDRR and gave them the case and all the information that he had already garnered and said, hey, this is what's going on. And so TDR opened up a larger investigation

that is still ongoing right now. To the best of my knowledge, Marquita's review is still in prosecution as mine is. Here's Amanda. We knew that they were changing birth records. We started reporting those things. I know there's quite a few investments. investigations that are still open, even though we reported some of these things a year ago.

HIPAA hasn't done anything, maybe a slap on the wrist, but we just really kind of knocked on every door that we could to make sure that they were in compliance and doing what they were supposed to be doing. We started digging into their licenses, and when were their licenses active? NARM oversees the preceptors, but then TDLR oversees the midwives, but that other CNN is under the Board of Nursing, so nobody's really talking. I've reached out to several attorneys. I know Marquita's reached out to handfuls. Midwives are not required to carry malpractice. If they do carry malpractice, it's such a small amount that most attorneys just, it's not worth it. Even if it's a class action? I did reach out to an attorney in the last few weeks, and I was like,

there's 40 of us. There's an attorney that took on a case against a midwife in Houston, and I reached out to that attorney. That attorney would be willing to talk to each one of us individually, but would not be willing to do a class action. I was looking into possibly, not in my case, but I know, like, Kristen's case, they owe her money and figuring out how to do small claims court, making it really easy for all of these women to file small claims on their own. without hiring an attorney. And that's something that I was looking into because if these women are owed money,

then we should be able to go and at least get their money back. Kristen did a lot of legwork and reached out to a lot of people when we first started doing all of this. And she was trying to get somebody to tell our story. And we had a local news organization, an investigative journalist.

She actually reached out and was willing to do a story. Here's Kristen. Around 2.724, I emailed Morgan, an investigative journalist. And I also emailed a whole bunch of other news outlets. Every news outlet in the area, like locally, I sent them a little op-ed. Popular Birth Center exposed for shady practices was my tagline. Morgan actually emailed me the same day.

I was extremely surprised. I didn't expect anybody to reach back out. We did get a storyline with WFAA. She did reach out to Gina and Caitlin for comment. The first segment, state investigating Dallas Birth Center and Midwives following multiple complaints from patients, aired March 29th of 2024. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which regulates birth centers in Texas, confirmed with WFAA, it is actively investigating origin. to make sure it's following health and safety concerns. And the city of Dallas confirmed the building Origins was using as a clinic right next to its birth center was issued a notice of violation for not having a certificate of occupancy. They did not want to be recorded on air.

There was a statement that was read. WFAA reached out to the co-owners of Origins Birth Services, Gina Thompson and Caitlin Wages, who were both licensed midwives. They invited WFAA for an on-camera. tour of the Dallas Birth Center, but did not want to answer any questions on camera. Instead, they provided this statement. Origins Birth Services has provided comprehensive maternity care since 2013, delivering over 1,900 babies. We are and continue to be honored to serve these low-risk women and walk alongside them as they make decisions regarding their care. Our experience

and training has helped us to put in practice policies and procedures to ensure to do the best of our ability, the safety of both mother and baby. We have worked throughout all these years with the state licensing board, both for our birth center and for our midwifery licenses. Our center is inspected regularly, and these policies and procedures are reviewed regularly as well. Unfortunately, medical privacy laws do not allow us to speak about specific patients. This leaves us with little recourse when anger and frustration are channeled in such a public forum. We can only welcome anyone to come and see for themselves what we have offered so many and what we will continue to offer to the families of the DFW community. Underneath that quote,

it says off camera, the women said they were in contact with the state this week and do not expect to receive any citations. They also said they are currently in the process of getting a certificate of occupancy for their clinic. Kaylin made several posts throughout this period of time in the private origins group. She posted to the Origins Birth Community. I'm assuming around the time that they found out that WFAA was going to do a segment. And she says, we wanted to take the opportunity to let our community know about events that have taken place recently.

We have a small group of women who are unhappy with their care of origins, which saddens our hearts deeply. This group's sole mission is to close down both origins locations. This vocal group of women have secured a platform for their story. a news story running on WFAA tonight with a focus on their belief that Origins is dangerous. Here is where we could use your help, ladies. If you have ever gotten anything from this group, if you feel that Origins has had an impact on your life in any meaningful way,

this is the time to let your voice be heard. Origins can't defend themselves due to privacy laws and out of respect for the individual families, but you can tell your stories. One voice in anger can be quite loud. We are asking for other voices to join in to help protect what we have built and keep birthing options available to DFW. If you want to share your story, now would be the most helpful on our public Facebook page, the WFA news site tonight, and anywhere else you might think of. We are heartbroken that we find ourselves here. We love and respect each of you, and it's the honor of our lives to have been a part of your growing families.

I'm sorry, but barf. when that hit the fan, Origins' moms and support of Origins started calling WFAA and trolling the investigator journalist talking about their good experiences and stuff like that. And I would like to take a moment to say, your experiences are extremely valid. And I am so happy that every person who had a wonderful birth with Origins got that. I'm glad that. I'm glad that. I'm glad that. that there are a lot of us who made it out and are perfectly okay, didn't have that negative experience and could walk away from origins not knowing what I found out.

But that does not negate the negligence. That does not negate these horrific and preventable stories that have come out of origins because of the shady practices, because of Gina and Caitlin and what they chose to do behind everyone's backs. This was never about blame. In November of 2024, about eight months after Amanda appeared on WFAA News, Origins Dallas closed its doors. Here's Kristen. Origins' birth and wellness, Dallas location did shut down, and they are still shut down.

They are selling their properties. They shut down their website, and so I'm assuming when they did this, they also started deleting reviews. Dallas location closed their doors while still alive. allegedly having clients and care without really telling their clients that they were no longer going to be in business. The Fort Worth location didn't actually close. So there is a midwife at the Fort Worth location and she was the primary midwife over at Fort Worth at times like the only midwife. She found out that Gina and Caitlin were going to sell and she worked out a deal with Gina to keep the building and rebrand it as her own business and operate her own birth center.

there. Jennifer and Elizabeth, the two more important midwives involved in my case, they got together and they opened their own birth center called DFW Birth and Wellness, not too far away from where origins used to be, and Jennifer runs her own school now for midwives as well, for the midwives who are going to go through the apprenticeship program. They go on to train the next generation of students. To a certain point, I do empathize with Jennifer. because Caitlin, from what I understand, can be extremely persuasive. She had a way of making people love her. I think when you're in a job and you really want to keep that job,

you do everything that you can to please people you're working for. If they're running short staff, maybe Jennifer felt more pressured to be the care for the women that were there because literally if Jennifer had quit at any point in time during my care after Amy left, there would have been no one in the clinic, which isn't right either. Jennifer doing that allowed Caitlin and Gina to continue with their deceptiveness, with their shady business practices. Do you know what the current status of Caitlin and Gina is?

Do you know what their next ventures are? Gina is, I believe, endeavoring into medical supply sales. And Caitlin did try to start her own home birth company, but that has seemed to have fizzled out. I haven't heard anywhere on the wide web or through the grapevine that Caitlin is actively practicing. Mostly, pregnancy and delivery is fine, but what matters is how you respond to when it doesn't. And that is the gamble that you're taking here is there's a lot of unknown on a macro level. No one is looking. A licensed midwife loses a baby but transfers that mother to the hospital before the baby dies. That hospital absorbs that statistic. Sometimes that statistic doesn't go back to the midwife. This was a quote given to me by Dr. Amos Grunabom. He's written quite a few studies in regards to the dangers of licensed midwifery in comparison to hospital birth and nurse midwifery. I spoke to him on the phone. And he kind of summed it up to this.

He's a Kristen, if a car seat company loses five children in a year, they are recalling all of those car seats. And they were going through extreme liability suits. They cannot put that car seat out in the market anymore. A midwife loses five babies, and she continues to practice. And it is absolutely true. There is very little recourse given to people who lose their children or who have suffered severe injury due to negligence and out-of-hospital births.

And that has shown blatantly here in Texas. The lack of recourse for literal death and negligence for out-of-hospital births is insane. The fact that I cannot sue. Being able to sue for malpractice isn't just about, like, you did something wrong, I need my money. If your baby is born out of negligence and suffers through, like, cerebral polices, or some other type of brain organ damage, you need money to be able to pay for the medical care, to pay for whatever extenuating circumstances that you've been put into because of the care that you received. You need that support, and that is what malpractice insurance is for.

It is for those things. Yes, is for recourse as well. I think that everybody should be held accountable for negligence. Absolutely, 100%. I think inside I knew if I told my story, it would no longer be mine. It would be the worlds to pick apart, to interpret however they see fit, to label me as X, Y, and Z. I experienced such violation and betrayal, and I felt like I had been turned inside out and then set on fire emotionally and psychologically. Everything that I thought that I knew was not true. I was betrayed by people I trust, and then I felt extremely violated. My body, I felt, had been mutilated.

My son had been callously disregarded, nearly lost his life. I mean, these things are incredibly viscerally personal to me. Listening to people's stories, listening to people lose their children, people nearly lose their own lives, and how that affects their relationships, how it affects them years and years. years down the line, I don't think I will ever forget what happened to me. And it is the same for other people. I have spoken to people who are 10 years out from their birth trauma and they remember

it like yesterday. You know, it gets easier with time, but it's something you have to carry. It's something you live with. It's just very hard. This is a very, very hard thing to do, especially being someone who was deeply affected by the results of the system that is currently. set up in our state. I began to realize this wasn't just an origins problem. This was a statewide and even national issue. Next time, on something was wrong. I was a surrogate for Caitlin wages in July of 2017. Caitlin was extremely anxious to meet her son, rightfully so. She decided she wanted to to induce. I kind of had some hesitations, but no alarm bells going off. I started working with them at Orgens of Birth Photographer prior to that, and even that relationship was kind of rocky.

Things morphed and changed from the time that I started working there. It really went downhill. We definitely had more upset clients towards the end than ever before. Something Was Wrong is a Broken Cycle Media production. created and produced by executive producer Tiffany Reese, Associate producers Amy B. Chessler, and Lily Rowe, with audio editing and music design by Becca High. Thank you to our extended team, Lauren Barkman, our social media marketing manager, and Sarah Stewart, our graphic artist.

Thank you to Marissa, Travis, and our team at WM.E., Wondry, Jason and Jennifer, our cybersecurity team, Darkbox Security, and my lawyer, Alan. Thank you endlessly to every survivor who has ever trusted us with their stories. And thank you, each and every listener, for making our show possible with your support and listenership. Special shout out to Emily Wolfe for covering Gladrag's original song You Think You, For Us This Season. For more music by Emily Wolf, check out the episode notes or your favorite music streaming app.

Speaking of episode notes, there every week you'll find episode-specific content. content warnings, sources, and resources. Until next time, stay safe, friends.