A Victoria woman who advertises herself as a “traditional midwife” to assist women in home births was the subject of a public warning this week by the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives.
The college said it received a report that Karma Dawn was purporting to be a midwife and could be offering midwifery services without authority to do so.
“This person has never been and is not a registrant of BCCNM and is not entitled to practice as a midwife in British Columbia,” says the public notice posted Oct. 16.
In B.C., only those registered with the college can call themselves midwives or registered midwives. To become a midwife, they must complete a four-year university program that covers a wide range of clinical skills and pass a national exam.
Registration with the college ensures only nurses and midwives with the required skills and education are employed in nursing and midwifery positions in the province, said the college.
Dawn’s website says she offers “traditional midwifery” services. “Traditional Midwives (TM) have been involved in delivering babies, and providing a broad range of other services to women, for hundreds of years,” it says.
Dawn is listed on the INNATE Postpartum Care Practitioners Directory as a“traditional birth attendant and a guide for women to reclaim and cultivate their personal power.”
In an email to the Times Colonist, Dawn accused the college of performing “a modern-day witch hunt against me.”
“What I can say to you and to them, is that, once they stop gaslighting, abusing, raping, torturing and traumatizing women during their birth processes, my work and that of all the other women who are in true service to women will be able to stop,” she wrote.
She said the licensing system does nothing but pit women against each other for approval of an authority that “knows nothing of female physiology or the innate process of birth.”
Dawn’s website says she is trying to grow her community of like-minded women “all over Vancouver Island and specifically offering her hands-on, in-person care to those in Victoria up to Nanaimo, including the surrounding areas and Islands.”
The B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives urged the public to verify the registration status for any individual who promotes themselves as a midwife via its online midwife verification tool (registry.midwives.bccnm.ca) or by directing an inquiry to the college’s registration department.
The college’s public warning about Dawn comes on the heels of an Oct. 12 advisory that Charrybelle Talaue, who uses several pseudonyms, is trying to seek work in B.C. hospitals as a nurse, despite not being a registered nurse.
The college said Talaue may be using the names Belle Talaue, Belle Marie, Charrybelle Baldesancho or Charie Talaue. She may also be using the name of a person who is a registrant of BCCNM, Yves Anglehart, as well as the variations Belle Yves Talaue Anglehart or Yves Belle Anglehart, the college said.
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