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Shownotes Transcript
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Opinions shared by the guests of the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of myself, Broken Cycle Media, and Wondery. The podcast and any linked materials should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice.
Origin's 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 Fuel have also not returned our request for comment. This season is dedicated with love to Malik. You're making on me, you don't You don't want to talk
Hi, I'm Barbie. I am a survivor of Origins birth and wellness. I have three beautiful daughters. Only the first one was what I call an Origins shit show. I'm a pediatric nurse. I do orthopedics and I do children. I don't do pregnancy. Two very different worlds.
My husband and I had been trying to have a baby for four years and we found out in June of 2018, we're not going to be able to get pregnant naturally. IVF is the only option.
For those that are familiar with IVF, it's not a cheap process and it's not a guaranteed process. And this is five years ago, so there was not much insurance coverage at all for IVF. We were looking to spend between $20,000 and $30,000 to create a baby. We found that out in June of 2018. In November of 2018, I found out from an acquaintance that IVF Abroad was an option.
We wouldn't have the financial burden of IVF. You know, we could pay cash. That's what we decided to do. So we traveled to Zlin, Czech Republic in February of 2019. We did a full round of IVF there. We stayed for three and a half weeks. I think we spent total with meds, maybe $6,000. So that's a big cost difference. We transferred two embryos.
Leading up to this, there was a ton of lab work that we had to do. And we found out I have a prothrombin gene mutation, which is a very important factor in this story. According to the Cleveland Clinic, a prothrombin gene mutation is an inherited condition that increases predisposition to develop abnormal blood clots in veins and/or lungs.
This happens because the body makes more of the factor 2 prothrombin protein than is needed for normal clot formation. Blood clots can cause serious problems in the body when they block blood flow, which keeps oxygen from getting to cells. They told me, oh, you have this clotting disorder. You'll probably be on aspirin your whole life. Once we transferred those two embryos, we took a plane back to Texas.
At the time, I was with an OB in Plano, Texas. We were drawing the HCG labs with her. My HCG was tripling like an HCG that you're pregnant with twins. So from what we could tell, both embryos took. Already, this pregnancy felt delicate and special. And on top of that, my mom was in stage four colon cancer.
and she was not doing well. You know, it's my first baby. My mom's actively dying. Like there's a lot of life changing events that are in the mix that are happening.
Here's where fate started turning. I was working one day and at the time at the hospital, there was a ton of nurses that were pregnant and one of my friends, she's a nurse practitioner, was pregnant. She was a few months ahead of me and so she was taking these birthing prep classes. We were talking about it one day at work and she was like, the instructor was talking about this place called Origins. It sounds so cool. It's a birthing center that's right down the street from Baylor University Medical Center.
Immediately, I thought, oh, that's awesome. You get the natural birth. But if something goes wrong, you can walk down to the hospital, basically. I wasn't super settled on the OB I had. So I Google Origins Birth and Wellness, and the website was beautiful. It's like the anthropology of birthing centers. I thought I could have this magical, peaceful birth.
One thing I looked at when I first started looking into them was what was their transfer rates? Well, their transfer rates were super low. So I thought, oh, that's great. In the midst of all of the stuff that's happening with me at home in my personal life, I could have an amazing birth. And this place would be perfect to do that at.
They had a night where it's like an open house or welcome to the new pregnant people. Ask me all your questions type of get together. We went to that and we saw the birth center in person. My husband's like, this is what you want. Let's do it. Yes, this is what I want.
My whole life, all I've known is all natural. I'm third born of eight kids. My mom birthed my oldest brother at home and then she birthed me at home. And that's when she hemorrhaged, was rushed to the emergency room. She survived that and then she had six more kids. The rest of the kids were in the hospital. This is back in the 90s. We didn't have to have medical insurance and we couldn't afford it.
My mom did a lot of herbal remedies and natural things. And so I just grew up in the natural world. People say like, you're a nurse. Why did you even go this route? You get pregnant. You want the very best for your baby, for your body. I feel like this is what's right. I signed up with Origins for the birthing bootcamp.
I remember giving them all the medical records. The first thing they should have done when they saw my medical records, I didn't know this at the time. They should have said, I am so sorry. We can't take you because you're high risk because A, you're an IVF patient and B, you have a clotting disorder that we are not comfortable managing. Those two things right there, she should have said, we can't do it. There's too many factors that could go wrong all of a sudden.
As a pediatric nurse, did you have awareness of the fact that a licensed midwife in Texas is not required to go to medical school, that you can become one with a high school diploma? That is not something that crossed my mind at the time. No, they're freaking helping you birth your child. It wasn't something that they say, hi, thanks for coming to Origins. Now I want you to understand the difference in licensing.
When you first started having your appointments at Origins, were you seeing Amy the whole time? I primarily saw Amy. There was another midwife that worked there. I would see either of them, but primarily I saw Amy every appointment. And when I was at Origins,
They were the only two. It wasn't a midwife mill. There wasn't a different one every single time. There was a receptionist. She was the one that would do billing and answering the phone and things like that. There was a total probably three to four people in the facility. Did you ever meet Gina or Caitlin?
No, I never met them. I never talked with them. I knew that Origins had a facility out in Fort Worth. I Googled it at one point. I think I saw those two ladies on the website, but I never talked with them. What was your impression of Amy? How did you feel about your care the first half of your pregnancy?
Amy was very kind. I do want to make this note. I think that Amy is, at her core, is a very nice person. And I think she has good intentions. But I feel like something clouds her judgment because she doesn't want her reputation to be messed up. And so she'll take on some cases she probably shouldn't take on. The first half of my pregnancy, it was fine because it felt very typical. It felt like I was having a smooth sailing pregnancy.
When I first started with them, she said due to IVF that they'll get me over to the MFM or the maternal fetal medicine doctor to do an ultrasound to double check things just to make sure everything's good. And I never saw an MFM. That never actually came to fruition.
Here's how an appointment went. You would go to the bathroom, you'd give a urine sample, you would get the dipstick, and you would dip that in your urine yourself.
And then you would weigh yourself. You'd wait for the midwife. They'd come in to be like, I looked at your urine and everything looks fine. And what was your weight today? So you would tell them. I hated that. Having to report your weight to somebody. It's like, you look at it. I don't want to see it. Because at one point in my pregnancy, I started gaining six to seven pounds a week.
And I didn't know that about preeclampsia, but that was a lot of weight gain in one week. And they would, for lack of better words, fat shame me and be like, what are you eating during the week? Are you exercising? But here's an interesting fact. And maybe this is what's normal. My entire pregnancy, when I started at Origins until the time I was in the hospital delivering, no one had seen my vagina. Like no one had been down there. Not a swab? Nothing. Nothing.
When they do the Group B strep swab, you do it yourself, which I thought was kind of odd.
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We know when it comes to finding balance, the more choices, the better. I told you we transferred two embryos. We lost that second embryo at seven or eight weeks, very early on. My mom passed away when I was about six months pregnant from colon cancer. I had alongside my dad and siblings had been one of her caretakers. That was a really hard hit to our family. First baby, I wanted my mom to meet her.
After that, I'm about six months going on seven months. This is when my blood pressure starts creeping up in office. I have a history of anxiety and depression, and I always would blame things on my anxiety. In office, my blood pressure was reading 140s over, I don't know what the bottom number was, but the bottom number was up a little bit too.
They said, oh, that's a little high. And I was like, well, you know, I have anxiety and I probably just have white coat syndrome. White coat syndrome, you're scared of providers, you're scared of doctor's offices. That's my understanding. Your blood pressure might be up, your heart rate might be up, your vitals might read a little higher than usual. So I'd always brush it off. I want to drive the point home. I just watched my mom die. I was hell bent on, I'm going to have a peaceful, wonderful birth. I'm not in the mood for something else to go wrong.
Two weeks later, I come back in for my appointment and my weight starts really creeping up. Six, seven, eight pounds a week. I'm trying to give them reason of why I'm gaining weight. And I'm like, well, you know, my mom just died. Maybe I had too much ice cream. I don't know. And I've been going through this and it's just stressful. I didn't even know what preeclampsia was. I know I'm a nurse, but I don't do preeclampsia with children. I didn't know that that was a complication.
origins wrote on August 22 2019, which I have my calendar pulled up was a Thursday to September 5 of 2019, which is two weeks later, I gained eight pounds in two weeks.
And according to the preeclampsia.org website, it says weight gain of more than three to five pounds in a week may be an indicator of preeclampsia. So already, I was having the weight gain, almost 10 pounds in two weeks. I feel like someone should have sat down and said, hey, you've got weight gain. You've had some headaches.
And your blood pressure in office isn't that great. Maybe we should get something checked. No. What we did instead was as the pregnancy progressed, it was send us what your blood pressure numbers are reading at home. At night, I would make sure that I was as relaxed as possible.
I would take my blood pressure and just pray it was a number that no one would get scared at. Most of the time, my blood pressure at home, it was 130s over 80s. And they were okay with that. And I was okay with it too because I didn't want anything to be wrong. They tell me you should really take some cayenne pills and you need to drink celery water. I don't know if you've ever tasted celery water. It tastes like ass. But I was drinking that celery water like my life depended on it.
My blood pressure at 34 weeks was creeping up. So it's 128 over 91. The top number wasn't horribly scary, but the bottom number is in the 90s. And then also at 34 weeks, they correlate the fundal height to the week pregnant. So at 34 weeks, I was 34 centimeters at the fundal height. I come back in the next week at 35 weeks, I'm measuring 34 weeks.
I said, is that okay? And she said, yeah, it can vary, you know, one or two. And I'm like, okay. I come in at 36 weeks. My blood pressure is 137 over 92. So it's going up even further. And I'm still measuring 34 centimeters in the fundal height two weeks later. So that's showing you like there's been no uterine growth. If you're not going to do a sonogram, the next best thing you have is the fundal height.
Sadie had not been growing in utero. I didn't know that was something to look for. So that's at 36 weeks. And then at 37 weeks, October 8th, I went in for an appointment. My blood pressure was 148 over 98. And my fundal height was 35 centimeters. I was 37 weeks pregnant. And she's measuring two weeks behind.
Just to give context, I was 183 pounds. I'm 5'10". When I got pregnant. Now, Origins wrote that the last weight they recorded for me on the 8th of October is 240 pounds.
I delivered my daughter on October 13th at 250 pounds. We can do the math real quick. I had a total weight gain of 67 pounds. I was just eating a normal diet. I was having like speckles in my vision. I wasn't losing vision. I did not have a massive migraine or anything like some people with preeclampsia do, but I did report. I have some speckles and like a dull headache, but I take Tylenol for it and it's okay. So I would tell them.
Also, at that appointment on that Tuesday, they drew blood work. I don't know when they got this blood work back, but it's important to note at my appointment, she told me, you did spill a little bit of protein in your urine on your dipstick the other day. I remember her saying that. I was like, wait, what?
I already had protein in my urine. There was already signs of preeclampsia six days before Sadie was born and four days before I went to the hospital. With preeclampsia, your organs are starting to, I don't know if the words deteriorate, fail, but my organs were not working at max capacity anymore. So I was just running around with these high values and high blood pressure. The next day on Wednesday, October 9th,
I was at work, didn't feel well. I was having speckles in my vision, my head hurt. I just felt sick. I looked at one of my nurse friends and I said, "I think I need to take my blood pressure." She took it and immediately all the color leaves her face. She turns the machine to me and it's reading 210 over 117. And that's very, very, very high. Like we're stroke levels at this point.
I'm going, hell no, there is no way this is happening to me. So I go into an empty patient room and I sit there and I call the origins number picked up. And I told her, and she was like, you need to get to the birthing center immediately.
Remember, I'm at work at a hospital. I come out and I say, why don't I go to the birth center and let them check on me? And they're all begging me. There's one charge nurse, she's crying and she's saying, Barbie, please go to the emergency room. Please don't go to the birthing center. They get one of the anesthesiologists whose wife also had preeclampsia and he's saying, Barbie, please don't go to the birthing center. Please go straight to Baylor. This is a deadly disease that's happening right now.
I'm just wanting to crawl out of my skin. I'm in complete denial. Nothing's wrong. I'm going to go. They're probably going to put me on bed rest and I'm still going to get to have a magical birth because my providers have not told me anything's wrong yet. One of my nurse friends drives me to the birthing center. I've already called my husband and he's on the way and they said, go in that birthing room and just lay on the bed and relax.
Looking back, when I said my blood pressure is 210 over 117, they should have said, get your F to the emergency room. But they were like, smell some lavender. It will help relax you. I am fully trusting my provider. My husband gets there and he's like, we're going to the emergency room? Like, no, everything's okay. We're just going to relax for now and you see where my blood pressure goes.
I remember them taking my blood pressure three or four times until it was 140s over 90s. This is what they got it back down to while I was laying there.
And unbeknownst to me, my friend who has dropped me off is waiting in their little waiting room. And she told me that Amy was like, you need to leave. They're fine. And she's like, aren't y'all going to take her to the emergency room? She's like, no, she's fine, is what she kept telling her. And I didn't witness this, but this is what my friend told me. Kind of like basically didn't want her to witness this thing, I guess. They draw some more labs.
I remember like she was standing at the foot of the bed in the downstairs birthing room. And I said, Amy, I am not above a C-section. If we need to go to the hospital, tell me and I will go. I will freaking put my hand on the Bible and tell you. She said to me, we're not there yet. There's no need to panic. And we were freaking there. I should have been in the hospital.
They sent me home from the birthing center again that Wednesday and said, here's a jug, do a 24-hour urine. On Thursday the 10th, my husband took it to the lab or wherever he had to drop it off. The results for the 24-hour urine came back on Friday the 11th. We're at home eating dinner. I don't feel well. I was real swollen. I just really felt out of breath.
Amy calls me Friday night and she said, Hey Barbie, we got your protein back. It's really high. So guess what? You're going to have a baby tonight. And I didn't understand how high until I'm actually seeing the records now.
So just to give context, according to the National Health Institute, the normal amount of protein in your urine for pregnancy is 150 milligrams to 300 milligrams. But mine for 24 hours was 150.
1,440 milligrams. I said, "What? What do you mean I'm having a baby tonight? Like I'm not in labor." She's like, "You need to go to the hospital. They know that you're coming." I said, "Okay." So I walk out to my husband. I said, "Hey, apparently I'm getting induced tonight." Then it's the panic because I didn't have a hospital backpack. I was 37 weeks pregnant. So we rush around and pack everything up and we beeline it down to Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
I don't understand the gravity of the situation at the time. I walk into L&D and there is a nurse pacing back and forth in the hall. I walk up to the desk and say, hi, you know, I'm Barbie. I'm here checking in. And I look on her desk and it has my name written, big letters, Barbie Dash, severe preeclampsia. I'm like, why does she have that written? What is going on? So the nurse that was pacing, she comes over to me. She's like, are you Barbie? And I'm like, yeah. She's like, come with me. I'm thinking in my mind, she was just hanging out waiting for me.
not realizing that I was in grave danger at the time. They get me in the room. They're like, give us a urine sample, change this gown. So I do that. I sit on the bed and all of a sudden there's three or four nurses in the room. One's digging in my arm for an IV. One's trying to explain to me what they're doing. Another one's trying to place the catheter. I was put on magnesium and on magnesium, you're pretty much confined to your bed. They were like, do you want an epidural?
I was like, no, I don't want an epidural. And she's like, okay, I just need to understand, like, you're not going to be able to get up and move around or anything. We're starting to go on Pitocin. I was like, okay, still not fully understanding. The Pitocin was kicking in. It was really pinching and cramping. It was not feeling great. I couldn't move. Couldn't do much in the bed other than turn.
And I looked at my husband, I was like, should I get the epidural? We're both like shell shocked. Neither of us know exactly what's going on. I had my husband call Amy to ask her if it was okay if I got an epidural. To ask permission. And that's just how, I don't know another word for it other than being just brainwashed. You can't make these decisions without the permission of your midwife or your doula. I felt like getting an epidural was admitting defeat and failure. Amy was just like, oh my gosh, yes, she can do the epidural.
You get in this mental state when you're in that environment of natural birth where it's like epidural is bad when it was a great needed intervention for me. My OB, she was the OB that Origins gave all their shit shows to. If things went south, they would call her. She's a wonderful doctor, very patient. She did not rush me to a C-section. And later I asked her why and she said, because you and the baby were still okay.
She let me labor. There was some turning off the Pitocin and turning on. And Sadie, my daughter, that was in labor with, Sadie absorbed some of the magnesium. So her heart rate was going up and down. Amy did call. She was texting with my husband, checking on the status. I think she was actually staying at the birthing center. When I was pushing, she did show up to support and be there.
When it was time to push, that's when things got scary. At this point, I had been in labor from Friday night to Sunday morning with little to no sleep. I pushed for an hour and a half.
Sadie, they lost her heart rate. They had to get Sadie out then. So she had to give me an episiotomy. Sadie popped out. I remember she held Sadie up. There was no crying. My baby was completely limp and covered in meconium. And so she gets Sadie out of there. She passes them off to the NICU and the NICU is working on her. She was five pounds, three ounces, the size of a 34 week old.
I have a video of her laying on the little baby bassinet and she's completely flaccid. Normally, you know, a baby is very flexed and their arms are drawn up, their knees are drawn up. Her cry is not even a cry. It's a whimper. Her Apgar at one minute was a two. All she had for the first minute of her life was a heart rate. She wasn't breathing. Her skin color was not good.
They had to use some respiratory resuscitation efforts to get her to start breathing and crying. At five minutes, her Apgar was a five. At five minutes of life, she had a little bit of skin color to her. Her muscle tone was really loose. She wasn't gripped up like a newborn normally is. She did recover at 10 minutes and she was a nine, thankfully.
Then all of a sudden, I just remember I just hear this pouring sound. It's as if someone was pouring water on the floor. I'm like, what is that? I found out it was me. I was hemorrhaging because the placenta had abrupted from the wall. I delivered the placenta. I was just so curious. I was like, I want to see my placenta. Normally, a placenta is the size of like a large dinner plate.
And mine was the size of a small pancake. So it just shows you like how damaged and how unhealthy that placenta was. And that's why Sadie was born so small and weak. The placenta was very sick.
After I had Sadie, it was maybe like an hour after, like she was laying on my chest and Dr. Fuller said, your cheeks are really red. She told the nurse, can you take her temperature? I have it here in the nurse's note. It was 102.4. My temperature shot up real quick. She told the nurse to start whatever antibiotic. In the charting, it says I had chorioamnioitis. And so that's an infection of the placenta and the amniotic fluid. I ended up with HELP syndrome.
HELP syndrome happens after preeclampsia. HELP syndrome stands for hemolysis, which is breaking down of the red blood cells, elevated liver enzymes, and low platelet count.
your red blood cells start breaking down. So your blood levels start to decrease, your liver enzymes elevate, and then your platelets plummet, they go way down. So then you're at risk for bleeding out. And it was a hard recovery. I ended up needing antibiotics and it was just rough.
My OB came to me the next day. I was in the hospital. She sat on my bed and she grabbed my hand and she was like, I'm so glad you're here. And I'm so glad Sadie's here. And she said, that was one of the top three scariest delivers I've ever done. And she's been in a doctor for a very, very long time. She said, I had no clue that you had a prothrombin gene mutation. She hadn't been taking care of me. She's like, it is a miracle that
You didn't throw a clot on the table and for lack of better words, die. It's an utter miracle that you're both here and alive. There were signs in your lab work, your liver enzymes were already elevated. Your blood pressure was creeping up already and your weight was creeping up the weeks prior to this happening. Like you should have already been sent out of their care. They shouldn't have kept you as long as they did.
Also, something my OBGYN circled, origins was aware of my prothrombin gene mutation. And the prothrombin gene mutation I have can contribute to having a preeclampsia complication. On top of being an IVF patient, that puts you at higher risk of preeclampsia and other complications. I also had a gene mutation that I didn't know puts you at a risk for preeclampsia.
I don't see the medical knowledge background for them to be able to put those pieces together. Once I had her, I got home. We did a follow-up with the OB doctor and then also with Origins because we had already paid for it. So we might as well do it. I want to say they were supposed to have two follow-ups with Origins. And so the first follow-up was two days after she was born. And I saw Amy. It was just basically like, how are you feeling? What's your blood pressure?
The second follow-up I was supposed to have with Origins, they had to push that one because someone was in labor at the birthing home at the time. My second follow-up was with this certified nurse midwife, which I had never met in my past. And Amy was there. Something felt off or uncomfortable. It just felt like Amy was avoiding me at that point. She was with another couple. But I was like, I almost died in front of you too.
I just felt like she would have wanted to follow up with me, but she never did. The first year was really rough because she was born at 37 weeks. So technically about three weeks early.
Four weeks later, she had a coli infection in her eyes that we had to get special eye drops for. She had like a very slight brachial strain. For the longest time, her right arm, she wouldn't use it. That probably happened when I was trying to push her out. Her neck maybe went forward more than her shoulder and it caused a little bit of a strain, but that resolved on its own.
She was always behind on her milestones and making those, but she has developed and she's a perfect little five-year-old now. I didn't understand the gravity of the situation until probably six months later. I really let myself think about what actually happened. And then I started to get mad. Then I started putting all the pieces together.
I called a lawyer's office that was recommended to me by a friend. She literally said, "Barbie, in the state of Texas, it's almost impossible to sue a provider."
I didn't go and print my whole chart when they were shutting down because I was pregnant with my third baby. I just didn't think about it. And so I called Dr. Fuller's office and I asked them to print all my records. And they told me, "We will print everything we have for you, but Origins usually doesn't send everything. They kind of send what they want." And I was like, "That tracks." I really wanted to see some of the charting and notes that Amy wrote.
So when I went to pick up my records at Dr. Fuller's office, I was like, hey, would Dr. Fuller mind requesting my records from Origins? Because now that they're closed, they want a physician's request. And they were like, oh, yeah, that's no problem. So right then and there, they had me sign a release form and they sent it over to Origins. From the time I left Dallas to come home, which is like 30 minutes, they emailed me and they're like, hey, here's all they sent us. It's six pages. None of it's helpful.
It's where I used to live, how many weeks pregnant I was, and then the labs that they had collected while I was there. And that's it. There's no charting. I'm just trying to see if there's anywhere on here that says like Amy Tate or... No, it's just like from Origins Birth Dallas with their old phone number on there. I was there from March of 2019. And then they transferred care October 11th of 2019.
At what point in your mind should you have been transferred care? In my opinion, no later than 34 weeks. They should have said, Barbie, we can't do this. You have now gained over 10 or 12 pounds in a month. Your blood pressure just keeps going up. You're measuring 34 centimeters for three weeks now. Like something is wrong. But it's like no one put the pieces together. And I wasn't putting the pieces together clearly. According to the Cleveland Clinic,
Most preeclampsia, they said, start showing after 27 weeks pregnant. As a provider of any kind, you're trusted. And that is something very sacred. I feel like it wasn't taken seriously. I trusted her to tell me when it could not go any further.
And I think what hurts the most is there was no apology. I know that none of us girls had got an apology. I know that would be admitting fault, but the hurt was not validated. It wasn't recognized. It's just been, well, it's your fault, but look, you're alive. So peace out kind of thing.
And that's what also strikes me within these stories is not only the negligence, but just the boundaries that are crossed in general and the nuances within the relationship. Certainly you want a personalized experience, but sometimes that personalization can be weaponized and it seems like it keeps people quiet. There are reasons for those parameters in the professional settings. Yes, I agree.
Amy has not reached out to me. I feel blatantly ignored or not advocated for in my care with Origins. That's kind of what led to me leaving my review. I left one on Google. I left one on Yelp. And I was very careful to only put the facts. I posted it. And then shortly after, on April 28th, Amy emailed me.
And she said, I read your review. Certainly sorry. You feel like you were not cared for well. As for the prothrombin gene mutation, it does increase, but does not guarantee the issues you mentioned. We discussed it at length and you stayed on baby aspirin.
We never had a full discussion about it. I remember they even suggested, maybe you should stop taking the baby aspirin. I was like, I feel like I should stay on it. She said, I looked over your chart as I remembered some things differently. We drew labs at 37.1 weeks before your episode at work because I was concerned.
You were taking your blood pressure at home and self-reporting much different numbers to us, and you insisted it was white coat syndrome, as reported to us at the 14-week intake. But you did spill protein, so I felt uncomfortable and recommended multiple things, as well as a CMP, which you consented to. Complete metabolic profile. The most important thing for preeclampsia out of that profile is the liver enzymes.
She said, we did additional labs when you came in the following day. And the moment I got the results, I called Dr. Fuller to arrange immediate care. And then I called you to go directly to Baylor. And then she says, your charts are completely available. We love caring for you. And the fear you mentioned was likely more our hearts breaking for you to have another load during such a hard time.
the gaslighting, the manipulation. Like she's saying to us, you insisted that your blood pressure was due to white coat syndrome, which I did. But you as a provider should have balls to go against me and say, hey, based off of our professional knowledge and our experience, because we do this every day, this is what we're concerned about. Did you respond to her? I did not. Because at that point, that email to me felt...
a little aggressive. Like, if you love me that much, call me and tell me this. But she's basically justifying the decisions they made, why they did what they did, and why I ended up in the situation I ended up in. I posted that review in 2020 and never thought anything would ever come of it. And dreamed of the day that I would be on a podcast telling my story just to have my voice heard because damn, that was traumatic.
So Kristen reached out to me November of 2023 on Facebook Messenger. She found me through my review. She was basically like, I'm Kristen. This is what happened to me. I've created this Survivors of Origins Birth Center support. Just looking for community if you want to connect. We're all kind of trauma bonded in a way. What has it been like hearing the other gals stories so far?
I listened to it while I was working night shift the other night. I cannot believe a traumatic story has happened more than once in a birthing center. It shouldn't be this traumatic that often. After listening and hearing about the owners, I personally never met them. I don't know. But based off of the pattern of what I've heard,
I now wonder if Amy's decision to not send me was more encouraged because they wanted to handle it themselves. It seems like that's fitting to the actions that were taken.
I want to say in one of the other interviews, you asked somebody, did the people at Baylor seem to know this was a thing about origins? And I want to say, yes. When I first delivered Sadie and I transferred from origins to there, no one said anything to me, but I had two more kids at Baylor. And each time I ended up delivering early and jokingly to the nurses and like triage, I would say, oh, I was an origin shit show. And they would look at me and they say, it happens all the time. Like,
They were insinuating they get origins cases all the time. And I was like, dang, that should not be how it is. People are able to become midwives and start interpreting medical values that can be life or death with no medical background. There needs to be some kind of standardized schooling.
that midwives go through because I think midwives are great. I know several people that have used them, but I also know that not every midwife is created equal. Whereas as a nurse, you have to go to college for four years and you also have to do so many hours of clinical. And then you also have to pass a licensing exam. You get the experience in the hospital. I just think we deserve better.
What do you hope that listeners will take away from hearing the survivors' stories this season? My whole reason for wanting to do this, A, is to be heard because I felt so silenced. But the second part, I want people to know, like, every person is not the same. And I don't know how else to say it, but, like, everybody's not going to present in their pregnancies the same way because that's one thing that I felt like they kept using against me.
What I really hope people will take away from this is not all birthing centers are bad, not all midwives are bad for lack of better words, but to really, really, really, really do your research. And please don't make a decision based off of really nice pictures and the materialistic part of the experience.
I just want to say not all OBs are bad either. The hospital medical field gets a bad rap. Both have so many pros and cons. You just have to do your research. If you feel like something is wrong, then something probably is.
Monday, April 21st, 2025, our team reached back out to Amy Tate with a full document with quotes of allegations that would be included in episodes 12 and 13 this season. The following day, she sent her final statement in regards to these allegations. Hi, thank you for your message and for the opportunity to respond. I understand that I am being named in an upcoming episode of Something Was Wrong in connection to care I provided as a midwife.
While I cannot discuss the details of any specific client experience due to confidentiality, I want to express my heartfelt empathy to any family who has experienced pain, fear, or lasting harm in their birthing journey. Birth is one of the most sacred, vulnerable moments in a person's life.
As a provider, I've always held that responsibility with deep care. If a client remembers their experience differently than I intended, or if my presence contributed to harm in ways I did not realize at the time, I carry that seriously. Since 2021, I stepped away from origins and built a new practice continuing my work, which is rooted in reflection, integrity, and transparency.
My license remains in good standing and I continue to serve families with the same commitment I've held throughout my career, to walk beside them with care, clarity, and humility. Thank you again for the opportunity to respond and for amplifying voices that often go unheard. With respect, Amy F. Tate, L.M. C.P.M., Clinical Director, Swiss Avenue Birth and Wellness Collaborative.
Next time on Something Was Wrong. I really live a good part of my life now feeling like doom is just right around the corner. That tomorrow something is going to happen and just all be ripped away. Luckily we have a beautiful baby boy and he's as healthy as can be. I don't know how I can enjoy it as fully as I can without being scared that something's going to take that away.
We originally thought we just happened to have these unfortunate events happen to us and then realizing that this was definitely happening all over and it has been for a while. We just really want to advocate for mothers, for babies and provide as many resources and education as
Mama was born to assess some of those disparities and to protect mothers and their babies and to help provide them with information to make informed decisions for themselves and how that could potentially affect your care. We're not against midwifery. We all chose that route. We want midwives to hold themselves to a higher standard so that everybody can have these options.
Something Was Wrong is a Broken Cycle Media production created and produced by executive producer Tiffany Reese, associate producers Amy B. Chesler 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 WME, Wondery, 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 Wolfe, check out the episode notes or your favorite music streaming app. Speaking of episode notes, there every week you'll find episode specific content warnings, sources and resources. Until next time, stay safe, friends.
If you like Something Was Wrong, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at wondery.com slash survey.