Kaitlyn Braun, a former social worker from Brantford, Ontario, ran one of Canada’s most disturbing empathy-based scams, tricking doulas into believing she was pregnant and telling them traumatic stories for sexual and emotional pleasure. Her schemes hurt more than 50 people, and in 2025 she was sentenced to a landmark prison term. The case revealed the dark psychology of coercive empathy and changed the way professionals in Canada’s caregiving community think about safety.
Who is Kaitlyn Braun?
The real crime case of Kaitlyn Braun is one of the most horrific in Canada. It involves psychological manipulation, sexualized lying, and emotional exploitation. Braun grew up in Brantford, Ontario, and then pretended to be pregnant, traumatized, and terminally ill to get into the loving realm of birth support. Her complicated web of deceit ruined the careers and emotional stability of many doulas in Canada and the US.
What started as emotional fraud grew into one of the most terrible cases of coercive empathy abuse ever recorded.
Kaitlyn Braun’s Early Life and Patterns of Behavior
Before she did bad things, Kaitlyn Braun worked as a social worker in Ontario for a short time. Her coworkers quickly observed that she had several bad habits, such making up problems, blowing things out of proportion, and lying to get sympathy. She was fired for making false claims of sexual assault against an 11-year-old client.
Braun went to the hospital more than 170 times between 2020 and 2022 for self-inflicted or made-up illnesses and filed more than 60 bogus sexual assault complaints, which police later said were not real. The police formally warned her that making more false reports could get her in trouble.
Psychiatric patterns of control and emotional dominance started to show up—she often lied about house invasions, fatal diseases, and family funerals. What started as a way to get attention quickly turned into complicated scams that took advantage of people’s empathy, trust, and sexuality.
2022—The Start of the Lies
In the middle of 2022, Kaitlyn Braun started calling doulas and birth support workers all throughout Ontario using fake names like Jessica and Kate Baker. She said she was pregnant and often pretended to be a mother who had been raped or was terminally ill and bearing a stillborn child.
Braun said she didn’t have any family or partner support and acted out labor with alarming realism by timed contractions, faking pain, and talking about breathing patterns. Dozens of doulas believed her story and helped her for hours over the phone and through messages.
Late 2022-More violence and sexual manipulation
Braun’s lies quickly got worse. She set up multiple phony labors at the same time, telling each doula that she was having a stillborn baby. She even gave one the name “Eden” and used stolen pictures of dead babies to make the lie stronger.
Several doulas came to her home in Brantford, where Braun acted out scenes from labor. Others helped her online. During these times, she asked for massages that were either nude or mostly nude, saying they helped with the discomfort of labor. Police later confirmed that these incidents led to 19 accusations of indecent behavior, and detectives determined that the behavior had a sexual purpose.
Her lies had gone from emotional manipulation to manipulation based on a fetish.
The Pattern Starts to Fall Apart in Early 2023
Online, doulas started sharing notes in early 2023 and found out that they had all been targeted by the same woman. There were the same scripts, aliases, and timelines. More than 50 victims were found, and 17 were officially named in the court case.
Victims talked about how emotionally hurt and humiliated they felt at work. Some people quit working as caregivers because they said they didn’t trust their customers anymore. The agony went much beyond losing money; it was an attack on compassion itself.
December 2023-Guilty Pleas and What Happened in Court
Kaitlyn Braun admitted to 21 crimes in December 2023, including fraud, false pretenses, mischief, and sexual conduct. She said she made up pregnancies, stillbirths, and assaults between June 2022 and February 2023.
The courtroom heard heartbreaking victim impact statements that talked about being manipulated, betrayed emotionally, and humiliated in public. One doula said she felt “violated” and “professionally destroyed.”
February 2024-House arrest and a mental health evaluation
On February 20, 2024, Braun was given three years of probation and two years of home arrest, minus one day. Her conditions were:
- Having a GPS ankle monitor on
- A two-year ban on social media and the internet
- Therapy and counseling for those with mental health issues are required.
- No interaction with victims or work connected to pregnancy
A psychiatric evaluation indicated that Braun was at significant risk of recidivism, characterizing her as motivated by “a need for control and emotional dominance.” She was told she had borderline personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, anxiety, and depression.
April 2024-Committing a crime while under house arrest
Kaitlyn Braun started lying again just a few weeks into her conditional sentence.
Victim One-A worker who helps people in crisis
Braun said she was 19 weeks pregnant with a kid who was going to die. She used the name Kate Baker. She called a parental crisis center and talked to a volunteer for 18 hours over the course of two days, making sexual noises that sounded like climax. The volunteer eventually found out about the deception and quit her job as a caregiver, which left her traumatized.
Second Victim-Hamilton Doula
She said she was 21 weeks pregnant and had a miscarriage under a new name. In three days, she sent and received more than 600 messages and signed a $250 contract that was never paid. The lie fell apart when the doula called the hospital and found out that Braun was not a patient.
Later, the Crown called her actions “planned, calculated, and sexually exploitative.”
30 April 2024—New charges and an arrest
Braun was arrested for breaking the terms of her sentence and was charged with further crimes:
- Two counts of getting services by lying (less than $5,000)
- Two counts of harassment
- One charge of breaking a sentence order
Second Guilty Plea in January 2025
Braun pleaded guilty to four charges again in January 2025. The prosecution said she “lacks insight into her behavior and motivation,” and Justice Joe Fiorucci said that the evidence strongly suggested a sexual aspect, even though no sexual assault charge was filed. Both the Crown and the defense agreed on a prison sentence with mental health care.
The “Kaitlyn’s Baby” podcast starts in January 2025
Kaitlyn’s Baby, a six-part investigative podcast made by CBC and BBC together, started on January 14, 2025. It looked into Braun’s strange fixation with pregnancy, stillbirth, and medical issues.
The series contained dramatic testimony from victims like Amy Perry, Seanna Hayes, Chelsea, Terri, and Verina Henchy. The last one was a British doula who was tricked by a lady using the same script as Braun.
The show sparked a global conversation on how to protect people who work in compassion-based fields from being taken advantage of.
May 2025—Sentencing Hearings and Comments from the Court
During the sentencing hearings in May 2025, the Crown and defense suggested a five-year prison sentence, which would include her time under house arrest. Justice Fiorucci was unsure if prison might help her, but he agreed with the combined proposal for public safety.
He said in his statement:
“The offender’s deception was fully conscious, purposeful, and deliberate.”
“She is a serious and ongoing threat to the community.”
“She will commit more crimes and make more victims if she doesn’t get therapy and a structured environment.”
The defense also said that Braun supported the custodial term because it would let him get Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) while he was in jail.
9 June 2025—Final Sentencing and Emotional Breakdown
Kaitlyn Braun was given a fresh sentence on June 9, 2025. She had to serve three years in jail for new crimes, plus the rest of her previous sentence, which added out to three years and eight months.
She wore a lime-green sweater and dark-green pants to court and didn’t look anyone in the eye. She merely said “Good morning.” The judge gave the sentence, and the woman in the prisoner’s box broke down in tears and bent her head.
Justice Fiorucci stressed that the lie she told created “lasting psychological harm” and said again that she was still a high-risk offender without long-term therapy.
Reactions from the victim and the community
“It’s a relief to know she’s finally in jail,” said Amy Perry.
Seanna Hayes: “I won’t let her ruin my heart’s work or my passion.”
Maighen Stanley said, “I’m glad the judge knows what we went through.”
Tracy Robb: She stopped taking care of her because she felt like she had lost all trust and safety.
Victims were upset that Braun’s recovery seemed more important than their suffering, but they felt better when they saw her finally go to jail.
Psychological Profile-Kaitlyn Braun’s Mind
Psychiatrists said that Braun was smart, manipulative, and emotionally empty. Some of the most important findings were:
She saw experts as “substitute friends” to help her feel less alone.
She got sexual pleasure from lying and taking risks.
She acted in a ritualistic, planned way, not in a crazy way.
She didn’t feel bad about what she did, even though she knew it was wrong.
She is still at a significant risk of reoffending if she doesn’t get regular therapy and medicines.
The Bigger Effect on the Doula Community
The Kaitlyn Braun case shook up Canada’s doula business and led to changes across the country. In response, doulas came up with:
Checking the client’s ID and references from the hospital.
Video calls are required before getting emotional support.
Making networks of inter-doula alerts.
Training on how to set limits and stop fraud.
Even though it was horrible, doulas transformed trauma into advocacy by setting professional safety standards and creating ways for peers to help each other.
Attention from the media and throughout the world
The BBC and CBC worked together to make the story known around the world, especially after Verina Henchy’s interview showed that a similar scam was happening in the UK. Braun’s tactics seem to have encouraged people all across the world to copy them or be interested in them. This has led to conversations on careers based on compassion and the psychology of empathy abuse.
Current Situation (Mid-2025)
Braun is still in a Canadian federal jail, where he is getting DBT therapy and mental care. If she makes progress in her treatment and gets parole, she could be released as early as late 2028.
Officials say she is not violent but is a high risk. Her story is now being investigated around the world as a way to learn more about reproductive fraud and sexualized deception.
What the Kaitlyn Braun Case Taught Us and What It Left Behind
The story of Kaitlyn Braun is a clear warning about how empathy can be used as a weapon in caregiving. It has compelled systemic introspection over the exploitation of trust, compassion, and emotional labor.
But even though there was trauma, the doula community has come out stronger, more aware, and more united. This will make sure that future clients are helped in a safe and ethical way.
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