A self-described Vancouver Island “childbirth activist” prohibited from serving as a midwife is facing a lawsuit from the parents of a child who was allegedly injured during a botched home birth.
Gloria Lemay has been banned for more than two decades from performing midwifery services — but according to a B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit filed this week, the Duncan woman allegedly contracted with a Chemainus couple in 2021 to act as their “midwife or birth attendant.”
The couple is now suing Lemay over damages they say their child suffered to his genitalia during 18 hours of labour, before they made the “difficult decision to abandon their home birth and attend the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital for emergency medical attention.”
The lawsuit accuses Lemay of “malicious, reckless and high-handed behaviour” — faulting her for allegedly dismissing concerns about the labour, telling the parents a hospital would send them home and “sleeping and snoring loudly for multiple hours of the labour.”
‘Exceptional expertise, knowledge and success’
According to her website, Lemay claims she has travelled throughout North America and Australia teaching midwifery; the website currently offers “Wise Woman Way of Birth Doula Training” at a cost of $675.
Lemay did not respond to an email from CBC News requesting comment on the lawsuit.
The parents claim they made the ‘difficult decision to abandon their home birth’ and attend the Nanaimo hospital for emergency medical attention. Their child was delivered through a C-section. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza/CBC)
She has a long history of defying court orders related to the illegal practice of midwifery, drawing jail time for contempt of court. She has also come under scrutiny related to the deaths of a newborn and a fetus in her care.
RCMP joined investigators from the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives last January to search Lemay’s home, after the college obtained an order to seize evidence of unauthorized midwifery following reports she may have been acting as a midwife.
The CBC is not naming the parents who brought the lawsuit in order to protect the identity of their son.
Their lawsuit claims Lemay told them “about her exceptional expertise, knowledge and success as a birth attendant,” pointing to her “allegedly successful involvement in over 1,500 natural at-home births.”
The parents claim Lemay didn’t say she wasn’t a licensed midwife and neglected to mention either her permanent prohibition from performing midwifery services or the fact she was “previously charged with criminal negligence in relation to the death of a fetus she delivered.”
An alleged ‘vulvar edema’
The parents claim they entered into a contract for Lemay’s services worth $2,600.
In the months leading up to the birth, she allegedly checked the infant’s positioning and heartbeat and made “repeated, false allegations … about the lack of efficacy and safety of at-hospital births.”
According to the lawsuit, there were attempts to ‘salvage a vaginal birth’ once the parents arrived at the hospital, but their baby had to be delivered via C-section. (Richard Buchan/Canadian Press)
The lawsuit claims the mother went into labour at 8 p.m. on Dec. 18, 2021 — spending the next 18 hours under Lemay’s oversight.
Lemay allegedly made “improper and infrequent examinations” and “wrongly assured the (parents) that a fleshy mass protruding during labour was a ‘vulvar edema’ and that she had seen and dealt with such issues previously.”
When they did decide to go to hospital, the parents claim Lemay refused to accompany them, telling them “not to mention her involvement.”
In the emergency room, doctors allegedly told the parents the baby was in a breech position and that the “alleged ‘vulvar edema’ diagnosed by [Lemay] was actually the [infant’s] swollen scrotum protruding from the birth canal.”
“Despite attempts to salvage a vaginal birth, the (baby) was ultimately delivered via C-section,” the lawsuit reads.
In addition to alleged psychological damages suffered by the parents, the lawsuit claims the child suffered injury to his groin, testicles, scrotum and reproductive capabilities.
Acquittal on criminal charge
Lemay has said she refuses to become a licensed midwife because she doesn’t agree with the college’s policies, which include recommending vitamin K for newborns and inducing labour in certain patients.
In 2002, she was sentenced to five months in jail for taking part in 10 home births after a conviction for criminal contempt of court. At the time, she was charging $2,500 per birth, according to the college.
Gloria Lemay speaks to reporters after her 1991 win at the Supreme Court of Canada, where her conviction for criminal negligence causing death was overturned. (CBC)
She was also found guilty of contempt of court in 1995 for refusing to answer questions during a coroner’s inquest into the death of a newborn she had delivered.
The three-day-old baby, Eli Foidl-Gosnell, died from an E. coli infection.
Lemay was charged with criminal negligence causing death after a fetus died during delivery in 1985. She was found guilty in B.C. Supreme Court, but later acquitted on appeal after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled she couldn’t be convicted because a fetus isn’t a legal person.