B.C. woman banned from midwifery charged in infant’s death

A B.C. woman who is permanently banned from practicing midwifery is facing manslaughter charges related to the death of a newborn infant more than a year ago.

In a Tuesday media release, Ladysmith RCMP said the baby was born unresponsive on Dec. 27, 2023, at a private home, and died on Jan. 6, 2024.

Mounties allege Gloria Lemay, 77, was involved in the birth, and her involvement in the process led to the child’s injuries and eventual death.

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In 1985, Lemay and a colleague were convicted of criminal negligence in the death of a baby boy in Vancouver. That conviction was later overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada.

In 1995, she was called to a coroners inquest after she assisted in the home birth of a baby boy who died three days later from e-coli the year prior. She was fined for refusing to cooperate with the inquiry.

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Lemay is the subject of a permanent court order issued in 2000, which “permanently prohibited and enjoined her from performing services for the purpose of midwifery,” according to the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM).

In 2002 she was jailed for five months for defying a court injunction barring her from practice.

But in a public advisory issued in January 2024, the college said Lemay has continued to hold herself out as a birth attendant and possibly offering midwifery services, despite the ban.

Lemay “is not, and has never been, a registrant of BCCNM and is not entitled to practice midwifery in British Columbia,” the college warned.

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The college obtained a court order and, along with RCMP, conducted a search of her home last January seeking evidence she had been practicing unauthorized midwifery.

Lemay’s website describes her as a “childbirth activist,” and says amid government regulation “the midwifery movement is losing its alternative nature and becoming more and more like the medical model it was supposed to replace.”

Her blog lists an upcoming birth doula training course scheduled for later this month.

Ladysmith RCMP said Lemay was arrested on Tuesday. There is no date set for her first court appearance.