Monday, December 17, 2012

Who Would Associate With VERY Serious Offenders?

Apparently, Gina Crosley-Corcoran, known to many as The Feminist Breeder, would. On her own blog, TFB reveals that she has gotten into a little intellectual property tiff with another blogger who is notorious in the birth world.  She notes that copyright infringement - in the form of the re-posting of a photo that she originally posted - is "a VERY serious offense."

Yet who is she inexplicably supporting and defending?  You guessed it - Brio Birth, the folks who can't seem to stay out of IP trouble.  Brio has aggressively courted TFB from its inception, due to her blog following. They even paid for advertising to sponsor her live blog of her homebirth, giving her the coveted distinction of being one of the few who was actually paid in full by Brio for services rendered.

There has been some confused speculation over the past year and a half about TFB's support, lack thereof, or shifting opinion regarding Brio, but make no mistake - her comments on their BirthLIVE cancellation thread were strongly supportive.


 
Multiple messages from knowledgeable parties about Brio's unethical and criminal activities, including their history of IP theft, have been met with a brush-off from TFB, who prides herself on her savvy and on her ability to stick up for the victim (as long as she decides the victim is worth supporting).  I wonder how she would react if Brio reposted one of her pictures - or any of her blog content - as their own?  She'd probably be blinded by a "thanks to The AMAZING Feminist Breeder! Warmly, Naomi" or a "we'd love to give credit"...

Because, after all, Brio is no Dr. Amy. They're much less honest about who they are, and much more damaging to the birth world.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Brio Birth - Growing Their Facebook Fan Base, One Intellectual Property Theft at a Time


The following is a guest post by an anonymous reader, with a bit of formatting by me. Many thanks to this guest blogger for the thorough and enlightening post!

If you are familiar with Facebook, you will know that people share photos and videos on Facebook quite readily.  You've probably done it yourself.  It's what Facebook is all about, right?

Well, yes, sort of.  You have to be careful in how you do it in order to protect copyright law.  Regarding posting content, they have some rules for "Protecting other people's rights."
It is important to note that "posting" is different than "sharing."  When you "share" something, you are not claiming to hold any ownership in it.  You are just saying "hey, I thought this was interesting, and thought my friends might like it too." It's like loaning a book or CD to a friend. But you "post" something when you put it into your own photo album. You have made a copy of it and are claiming it as yours. Once it is in your photo album, when someone else shares it, it will then post to their profile as being YOUR picture.


By doing this you have violated the first rule of posting in Facebook's Terms of Service...you have "posted content...that violates someone else's [copy]rights."  And you have broken copyright law, which you can be sued for. Don't believe it can happen to you because you aren't making money off of the photos or you are careful to mention where you got the photos?  Think again! One blogger explained about her painful experience with being sued here:  http://www.roniloren.com/blog/2012/7/20/bloggers-beware-you-can-get-sued-for-using-pics-on-your-blog.html  Only if you have permission to use the photo can you "post" it without violating copyright laws.

Now "Doula Dorothy" is unlikely to sue my friend Danielle for copying the meme.  But someone who makes their living off of selling photos just might.

So what does this have to do with Brio?

Many people have wondered what is behind the astronomical growth in Brio's fan base.  Like most anything else of value, the Brio Bunch has built their fan base through intellectual property (IP) theft.  Photos like those of the explosive pregnancy from an air pump that was shared 275 times in the first 17 hours after Brio posted it. The Brio Bunch claimed not to be able to find the original owner of this series of pictures, but I was able to find out that the photographer's name is Patrice Laroche in Canada with only a minimal amount of Google sleuthing.

When a fan of Brio Birth shares one of Brio's stolen pictures, and then several of their friends share the picture, and then several of their friends share the picture...it retains links back to Brio's page, and a quick link for people to click on to "like" Brio Birth.  One video that Brio Birth has pirated in this manner about an 8 month old boy getting a cochlear implant has gotten 350,000 shares and over 800,000 likes!  This gives them huge exposure from which to gain new fans.  Most likely most of them don't really care about low intervention birth, but just like the cute pictures and videos that are shared on the Brio Birth page.

What happens if you post photos that belong to someone else?  In addition to possibly suing you, the copyright holder can report the photos to Facebook as an IP theft and have them removed from Facebook.  If this happens enough times you may "get thrown in Facebook jail."  That is, as per rule # 5, your posting privileges may be disabled.  Recently some of the photos Brio has been posting have been reported as IP infringement, and this is likely what has led to the Brio Bunch labeling their photos as "Shared with permission from..." or "we don't know who owns this..."  BTW...getting permission to re-post stolen IP is also illegal, so just because the Brio Bunch is thanking Birth Stories on Demand for sharing the food based cervical dilation chart does not get them off the hook for IP theft; though it seems unlikely that the original owner of this piece is interested in protecting the IP as it has been posted far and wide on the internet without any apparent attempt to have it removed.

(click here to see banner)
Incidentally, just because the Brio Bunch claims not to know how to contact the source of a particular piece of IP doesn't mean that is true.  They claimed not to know who the mother was of the boy with a cochlear implant mentioned above...but 4 months prior to saying that Naomi had watched the original video on YouTube.


It is simple to Google the account holder's YouTube ID, which leads to a Pinterest account that has the mother's real name.  If Naomi doesn't have a Pinterest account which would allow her to contact the mother via that forum, she could find her on Facebook.

So there you have it... this appears to be how Brio Birth is seeing such explosive growth in their fan base.  Most of the likes are not directly from the birth community or parents impacted by Brio Birth - they are simply people who liked pictures and videos that were posted.  Pictures and videos that were stolen.  Apparently, this is Brio's definition of "doing good." If you see IP shared by Brio Birth that you know is not appropriately credited, you may wish to point it out to Brio - or the owner of the IP.  

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Any Current Brio Birth Educators or Students Out There?

The normal rules on this blog are that if you want to defend or talk up Brio Birth, to do it elsewhere, because positive talk about Brio is not suppressed there.  This is a safe place to share the truth about the darker underbelly of Brio Birth.  In almost any other forum, that is strictly forbidden, because either it's controlled by Brio (and thus deleted), well-meaning forum owners or mods want to keep a happy-happy-joy-joy community and avoid controversy, or people are afraid to post because the Brio Bunch have shown themselves to be bullies, using legal threats to intimidate hardworking mothers who just want to serve others and supplement their family's income doing it.

That said, we've had reports of people taking virtual childbirth classes and instructor trainings.  Here's your chance!  Be very specific.  What do you like about the training?  The program? The materials?  What exactly are they offering?  What do you dislike?  Do you feel you are getting your money's worth?  What about the website - what are your thoughts on the design? The functionality?  Have you had the opportunity to network with other Brio students or any of the educators listed on the website?  Comments positive to Brio will not be deleted if they contain specific factual examples and realistic assessments.  Comments in the vein of "OMG U ALL R TURBLE I DON'T UNDERSTAND Y U HATE THE MOMMAZ AND BAYBEEZ BRIO IS GONNA SAVE THE WORLD!!!!!" that contain purely emotional appeals and no specific information and examples will, however, be deleted.  We might make fun of them, too.  

Monday, December 10, 2012

Facebook Page

At the request of a reader, I have started a Facebook Page where people can interact.  I'm not really an expert Facebook user, so any tips are welcome.  I'm not even sure how to make the page searchable, but you can find it here.  I definitely plan to post blog links, as well as quick updates when available.  I welcome your input.

Update: I have claimed a user name for this page.  Since Facebook seems to filter for the word "scam" in user names, the page can be found at http://www.facebook.com/protectingthebirthcommunity.  Thanks for your support!

Sunday, December 9, 2012

BirthLIVE Redux

So a week after the big statement was promised, it was published.  The initial reaction: it took them a week to come up with this drivel?  It doesn't make any sense!


It is with sad hearts and disappointed hopes that Brio Birth is announcing the cancellation of our very first birthLIVE birth.

Quite possibly the only true thing in the statement.  We should just stop here.

... No?  Then proceed, intrepid reader, but don your hip waders and watch out for Pinocchio's nose!

While we have received a ton of support and there has been much excitement there has also been a small but determined group of individuals whose focus has been to destroy this opportunity for not only the mother that was bravely willing to share her birth, for all of the mothers who could have been inspired by this birth and for the producer, Brio Birth whose desire is to help educate women everywhere.

How are they measuring "support", exactly, other than in weight? Maybe we should try measuring in Brio's favorite units - currency.  When you subtract contributions by the Brio Bunch and known cronies (leaving in the questionable "Anonymous" contributions), they raised approximately $500 out of a proposed $25,000, or 2% of their goal.  That doesn't seem like a "ton" of support, at least not where it really counts.  And those monies were refunded to the contributors when their campaign was yanked - Eureka!  The small but determined group of individuals must have been the Indiegogo staff team, who openly told inquirers that they pulled the campaign because it was too high risk (which appears to be a politically correct way of saying "probable fraud").

Surprisingly much of this destructive activity has not come from the medical world hoping to stop the mainstream acceptance of home birth and the choice to have a vaginal birth after a cesarean section, (VBAC) but from our own natural birth community.

Could you describe the "destructive activity", sir?  And oh, that birth community - it really treats poor Brio and Kylomi like dirt, doesn't it?  Wasn't it also the "birth community" that forced poor Kylomi to have an unassisted birth? (Translation: no homebirth midwife would work with them because they had cheated their previous midwife and lied to the one who actually considered working with them, not to mention all the other issues that had made Naomi's name mud long since, and they freely chose not to take any of the many truly natural birth friendly hospital options available to them.)

We have actively tried to stay away from the negativity and let our actions speak for themselves, unfortunately there are so many who let the fear and negativity cloud what they know to be good. We ask everyone to stop and do two things -

1. Look around BrioBirth.com - see the good being done
2. Look at our Brio Birth Facebook Page - the largest in natural birth education - and again see the good that is being done

Rest assured, Brio, your actions have definitely spoken for themselves.  Very loudly.  And more people are beginning to notice.  One thing we can agree on - everyone should definitely look around briobirth.com.  Take note of the defunct website that was designed to be an ad server and couldn't even do that right.  Browse through the recycled months-old blog posts.  Search for an educator near you!  If you can even turn up any results, they are likely educators who left Brio over a year ago.  Many will openly denounce Brio.

While you're at it, go ahead and look at the Brio Birth Facebook page.  So it's got a ton of likes - you can get those when you make a full-time job of trying to drum them up.  It is completely possible to buy likes, and one of Brio's favorite techniques is to steal IP and redistribute it as their own.  So please, go look at the "good" that is being done by posting stolen memes, re-posting fan questions, and putting up vapid discussion topics such as "what two things will you miss about parenting when your kids are grown?".  Maybe it's engaging a Facebook user that would otherwise be a serial killer out harming people.  That would be some "good", I guess.  

We are disappointed and sad that a few voices have been enough to stop this brave mother from sharing her birth with the world.

So how, exactly, have these "few voices" - whoever they are: Indiegogo? the Birth Community?  the One-Armed Man? the Media? - stopped this event, let alone a mother sharing her birth with the world, which she could do without the stain of Brio on it?  Since when does "negativity" stop an event?

We cannot give those voices power and we will not go quietly into the night. We are continuing on with the birthLIVE project, just slower than we had hoped, with Brio Birth will be funding the events.

Oh, we are quite sure you will not go quietly into the night.  That is why Birth Scam Report, its readers, and more and more of your victims will be there, watching your every move, protecting the mothers, babies, and unsuspecting birth professionals from your scams.

We at Brio Birth want to thank Nicole, Matt and her birth team for their courage and love for each other - you are inspirations to all of us.

I think everyone wishes Nicole, her family, and her birth team the best.  No one ever "harassed" Nicole, despite Brio's vigorous protests.  No one was even really harassing Brio - the only thing "harassing" Brio was their own history of misdeeds.

In summary, a lot of whining and finger pointing, not much of substance.  Moving right along...      


Friday, December 7, 2012

The New BirthLIVE Project - Independent, or Another Shell?

With the implosion of the "FREE Live Streamed View of Childbirth" and its corresponding Indiegogo campaign, many of us are wondering what is going to happen with the event.  A statement was promised "shortly" on Saturday, December 1st.  Several inquiries were made throughout the week.  Finally, on Thursday, December 6th, after yet another inquiry the night before, the ever-responsive "Brio Birth" deflected, saying that Nicole had been sick with a stomach bug that week.  (Was that before or after the trip to the beach?)  Oh, and her family, too!  Play that family card with the birth community - that will hold them off.  Why was Nicole the one writing the statement, anyway?  What happened to taking care of the pregnant mom, protecting her from "harrassment"? That statement was Brio's responsibility.  But let's move on...

Despite the utter lack of any kind of announcement from Brio, there seems to be some motion behind (or beside?) the scenes.  Suddenly we see the half-formed, but already-launched, "birthLIVE.org".  (Yes, they have a Facebook page already, too!)  This page announces that Nicole is "the Brains" behind the project (with a Lorem Ipsum? Really?), but it does not give any indication of who the rest of the body is, though that body seems to be very possessive ("our wonderful" Nicole Hoff?  This writing drips with Naomi's style).  My suspicion is that it is a front for Brio, with Nicole providing cover for the Thomases, just as they got Karl Clinger and Embrion to do.  I could be wrong, and if Nicole is really doing this without any of the Brio Bunch, power to her.

Even more interesting is the Funds page - the most complete page on the site as of this writing, but no, it's not about the money.  (Screenshot saved for posterity here.)


"As you can see we are a .org meaning that no individual or business will take profits from the birthLIVE project.
This does not mean we will not be paying for services provided to the project by outside companies, or that our people will not be paid just that no one is going to get rich off of the birthLIVE project."
FALSE.  Anybody can purchase a .org domain - for their nonprofit, their for-profit business, their family, or any other website they want to make.


"No more than 20% will ever go to administration or operational costs, and to start we will keep it under 10%. To put this into perspective many non-profit entities have less than a 20% pass through – meaning that nearly 80% of their funds go to administrations and operational costs."

FALSE.  According to charitynavigator.org, (OH LOOK! A .ORG DOMAIN!) 70% of the charities they evaluated have a pass through of 75% or greater, and 90% have a pass through of 65% or greater.  80% pass through is a laudable goal, but not really a distinctive feat.


"We know that you may be saying “those numbers don’t add up..."


You bet we are.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

What to Do if You've Been Burned

Updated with more channels for complaints on Dec 13th, 2012

So you've been scammed by Brio Birth.  If you were part of the initial group of educators, I feel your pain.  If you jumped on board later, I have much more mixed feelings.  There was a huge body of red flags out there that even a simple google search should have revealed.  There are also many childbirth educators, doulas, midwives and so on out there who have raised their voices in warning, and yet people jumped in anyway, enabling the Brio Bunch to continue scamming the birth community and innocent mothers.

With that said, if you have truly finally seen the light, welcome to the other side!  You may never see a dime of any money that you may have put out, though you could get lucky, but you can make your experience mean something, and try to recoup what you lost along the way.  Here are a couple of suggestions for actions you might take.


  1. Charge back any money you paid via Paypal or Google Checkout.  You can also file a fraud complaint.  Brio has had, as of this writing, at least one Paypal and at least one Google Checkout account shut down.  Keep them on the run.
  2. If you are unsuccessful in getting a refund via Paypal/Google Checkout, be sure to file a complaint with the service, and if you used a credit card, go to your credit card provider. Some victims have had success getting a refund to their credit card by doing this.
  3. File a complaint with IC3, the Internet Crime Complaint Commission.  They investigate internet fraud and white collar crime, and they take a vacuum-cleaner approach and then correlate complaints that are scattered geographically.  Thus, they might realize that an educator in Oregon and an educator in Florida were both scammed by Brio Birth, and lend more weight to the need for an investigation into their internet activities.
  4. File a complaint with the CO Attorney General's Office.  This will reach BBB and/or law enforcement as appropriate.
  5. Share your experience with your local birth community and any birth-y contacts you have elsewhere.  Let the truth flow through the internet, in hopes that eventually there will be a dense enough net that they can't continue to swim through. They are thriving on others' silence, however well intended that silence might be. 


Please feel free to add to this list in the comments.  I know that people have gone to other law enforcement resources including the F.B.I. and different levels of prosecuting attorneys, and I would love to hear experiences from these efforts. With good information, this may become its own tab that people can refer to.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Brio's Latest Scam, Part III: Popcorn and Coffee

As many readers saw, there was a blowup on the Birth Live event page yesterday. Anybody who has any experience with the inside of Brio Birth knows that Naomi has one of the quickest delete buttons in the west.  Unfortunately for the Brio Bunch, most of the posters knew it, and took screenshots of the action as it unfolded.  Thank you to the multiple sources who sent screenshots.  Here is a link to a large portion of the screenshots (more will likely be posted later - the more complete version was having difficulties with some requested redaction).  You may need to zoom in a bit to read, depending on your browser.

There are so many things I could say about so many of the comments, but I think I may just let it speak for itself.  Please feel free to add your two cents here!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Brio Basics: Question from a Reader... Maybe

I received this e-mail, and I'm not sure whether the source is legitimate.  However, the questions are worth asking, even if it is a fishing expedition, so I've chosen to publish it here:

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To make a long story short I am a volunteer lactation support volunteer with a local midwifery center that I am doing doula training with. They have never heard of Brio Birth, but are only vaguely familiar with Birth Professionals International, who I only heard of through Brio Birth. I was toying with the idea of becoming a Birth Educator of some form in addition to DONA certification since my husband thinks I spend enough time blogging for free I should make money out of it. I think the idea of paying for training makes sense, when I became a CNA I paid 350 bucks to take a two week course and it got me a job in hospital instead of a nursing home,  I did the same with phlebotomy training before applying at a dialysis clinic, and when I wanted to keep my distaster repsonse certification up I paid for CPR/First Aid through the Red Cross. So is there something I am missing about Brio Birth? Or did they steal an education program from someone else? 

What do I need to know?

thanks.
----


A bit of poking around on the internet shows the only occurrence of the sender's name or e-mail address being a random question on a Nurturing Hearts blog post a little over a year ago.  That does indicate that the owner of this address might at least be in the birth world, but I still am not feeling a great deal of trust in it.  If this person spends so much time "blogging for free", she must do it under a pseudonym.  I could further dissect the sender, but instead I'll focus on the questions.  Is there something she is missing about Brio Birth? Quite probably.  Did they steal an education program from someone else?  In a word, yes.  Their "amazing, beautiful materials!" were put together by educators who were never compensated for their contributions, and had to fight to even get credit in the book.  I wonder if that credits page still appears in the electronic copies that they distribute.  Their childbirth class curriculum and their instructor training program were put together, again, by others who were never paid or even credited for their work, despite expectations presented when they were "hired" and verbal contracts.  What does she need to know?

Well, she had my e-mail address.  Therefore, she must have read at least something on this blog. This blog is a decent start on what she needs to know.  She should check out the Files section, where she can find some very revealing audio files and documents.

What else do you think she needs to know?  Fire away!

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Forgiveness... Is That What They're Calling It These Days?

In a shameless promotion of Brio Birth's latest scam, Naomi sent out an email pleading for funding to a very large list of addresses - and forgot to use the BCC: function. For those of you who know the ancient Brio history, this is not the first time this has happened.  The first time, it caused a storm of angry reply-all messages and the creation of an alternate identity for Kyle named "Jeff Smith."  This time, the recipients seem quieter, but in an exciting double whammy, the email address of at least one childbirth educator Brio has severely alienated was on that list.  This person replied:

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Dear Naomi,
I am sure that you sent this to me by mistake.  As you know, two years ago the Denver Police told your husband to never contact me.  I am asking you to never include my email in any of your correspondance with others.  Please take my address out of your contacts.  I do not and will never support any of your projects.
Sincerely,
----

In an apparent misunderstanding of the phrase "never contact me," Naomi RESPONDED TO THE EMAIL with this mind-blowing bit of drivel:

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So sorry for the mixup. I have chosen to live in a way where I forgive like I have amnesia and apparently it has worked! Thank you for helping me to see that. I wish you the best I all of your endeavors. As we are successful in our individual endeavors we will only encourage everyone else to be successful. 

With respect,
Naomi Thomas

Sent from my iPad
----

What, no "warmly?"  Somewhere, I think Cher Horowitz is shaking her head.

She wants to forgive like she has amnesia?  Really? Maybe she wants people to get amnesia and forgive her.  Of course, with her long history of syrupy cons and burnt bridges, that's a pretty tall order.  Let's break this down, shall we?  Who requires forgiveness here:

1) the childbirth educator who was so frightened by Kyle that she felt the need to involve the police, and insisted that she never be contacted again, or

2) the money-grubbing privacy invader who ignored that completely appropriate insistence and barged back into that childbirth educator's life?

To anyone who lives outside the Brio Bubble, the answer is obvious, as is the identity behind door number 2.  Our alienated childbirth educator sent quite possible the only civil response:

----
Whatever Naomi.  Do not email me again.
----

In the real world, Naomi, I think the word you're looking for is "delusion", not "forgiveness".

Monday, November 26, 2012

Brio's Latest Scam, Part II: The Money and the Tech, and the People, and the Money

UPDATE: The Indiegogo campaign has apparently been removed, and it seems that some or all contributors' money may have been refunded.  Curious!  Apparently Brio's story is that an "admin account" was hacked and the hacker removed the campaign.  The mother's story is that she believes the Brio Bunch, and the event is still on.  Thanks to an anonymous commenter for the tip!

With about a week and a half left of Brio's groveling campaign, let's examine some other angles.  The concept of the project itself was addressed in our previous post here.

Apparently, Brio has scheduled this birth for a month out and publicized it heavily without doing a single thing to make it happen.  They have no skin in this game (gee, there's a surprise), unless you count the $5 contributed by "Denver Doula," the undisclosed amount (thought to be around $10 based on an analysis of early contributions) contributed by Karl Clinger, and a couple of other contributions by known cronies as viewable here.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

This campaign is a "flexible funding" campaign, which means that when they don't meet their funding goal (or even come close, unless those investors Kyle promised back in the beginning come through, maybe), the contributions will not be refunded.  Brio will get to keep what was contributed, minus a 9% service fee to Indiegogo.  In other words, they make grand promises, take other people's money, and show nothing for it.  Deja vu, anyone?  I wonder if the people who jumped on the bandwagon - especially those who bought "perks" like advertising or a month-long replay - understand how the funding for this campaign actually works.  I wonder if Brio will still try to make a shoestring broadcast of the birth happen, with some cheap and/or borrowed webcams, or if they will simply do nothing, except blame the "haters" and have Naomi send some sugary non-apology emails to the people who gave money for nothing.  

So let's look at "The Tech and The Money."

The Tech: The fancy cameras that they want to buy look pretty nice, but the battery life on the setup is only a couple of hours.  Granted, precipitous births do happen, but they probably want to be prepared for a long birth.  This is going to mean hooking up to a power source and hindering the movement of the POV cameras, or having a back-up battery for each camera, switching them out, and constantly re-charging.  So there will definitely be feed interruptions if the birth is not precipitous.  Also, who is going to be the battery doula?  Then there are the Mac Minis supposedly required to process the feed.  My guess is, somebody wants new toys.

The Money: Again, this whole scheme might have a little more credibility if Brio were putting in any money to buy the toys.  Also, for a group that claims to have so much technical and networking savvy, they appear to either have a blind spot or be purposefully inflating the prices.  A relatively quick search turns up the equipment they have put out that they intend to use for lower prices than what they show on their little infographic, sometimes to the tune of hundreds of dollars per setup, and that is from somebody not putting in a great deal of time.  If they were to dedicate a bit of time and effort to shopping, they could likely realize some pretty heavy savings.  And they claim that they are putting in the money for personnel, travel, etc - I would love to know where they are getting that money, particularly when they have well over a quarter million dollars in judgments and debts that they haven't paid a dime towards, and they have a history of not even being able to pay their own rent.  For greater amusement, look at what would be done with any money exceeding their goal (not that that's going to happen).  It would be evenly divided five ways between:

  • Brio Birth - of course!  Fancy dinners and toys aren't cheap.
  • The birthing family - makes sense.  If she's going to display her birth to the world and deal with the invasion of privacy and the disturbance of the birthing process, she ought to be compensated.
  • "The PR/Advertising & Tech team" - so, by all appearances, the Brio Bunch.  Hey!  That ups their share to 40% of the extra money that's not going to be there!  Surely they couldn't be playing a shell game for additional personal gain...
  • The mother's maternity and wellness center - now that's a good cause, especially in Texas, which is not known for its friendliness to birthing mothers.
  • A fund for another family to do THIS SAME THING!  And I'm sure Brio will be there, cap in hand, asking for more money.  Of course, I'm sure Brio will be holding this fund, which means it's in the hands of their excellent stewardship.
Then, of course, there's that other element - the People.  I don't know this mother, except by all the information she's been putting all over the internet in connection with this project (and I think she protests a bit too much about not wanting to show off).  I don't know the midwife, or the doulas.  But I do know the Brio Bunch, and that gives me a bit of a sick sense about the entire project.   

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Brio's Latest Scam, Part I: You Paid $25,000 for a Used WHAT?

UPDATE: The Indiegogo campaign has apparently been removed, and it seems that some or all contributors' money may have been refunded.  Curious!  Apparently Brio's story is that an "admin account" was hacked and the hacker removed the campaign.  The mother's story is that she believes the Brio Bunch, and the event is still on.  Thanks to an anonymous commenter for the tip!

Brio Birth is now groveling for money to stream a live birth on both Indiegogo and as part of a FedEx small business grant contest.  For the moment, let's ignore the scammers behind the effort and look at the project itself, shall we?

The idea is to show the birth from six angles: the birth partner's point of view (Daddycam?  Give me a break.  Let's infantilize it a little bit more, shall we?), the midwife's point of view, the doula's point of view, overhead, wide-angle, and under water.  This will stream live over the internet - yet, for some reason, they will need $7500 worth of equipment to "process" the video feed - for the whole world to watch.  But that's enough about "the money and the tech" for now - I'll address that in another post.  Now, I see that they appear to have amped up the birth team to include two doulas (so which one will wear the "Doulacam"?), but really, who is caring for mom while everybody's showboating with these fancy cameras?  What if the other kids need a parent - will the "Daddycam" pass off to Doula #2?  What if the planned waterbirth becomes a land birth?  That actually happens quite often, for various reasons, including baby comes precipitously, mom doesn't want to be in the water, baby needs a bit more of a gravity assist, mom and baby need a bit more hands-on help from the midwife... Just because a mother thinks she wants to give birth in the water, even if she's done it before, doesn't mean that it will absolutely happen.  Of course, they want to do a DOCUMENTARY, so the camera won't necessarily be wasted!  

All these eyes on this birth are surely going to disturb the process as the birth team becomes a theatrical team, and birth as performance art generally doesn't end with a satisfied mother and baby, even if there is a good outcome.  Carla Hartley of Ancient Art Midwifery Institute, a strong proponent of undisturbed birth, had this to say when people solicited her support on Facebook:


The next person who posts on my wall anything having to do with raising funds for anything having to do with the live broadcast of a birth will be blocked .... Really I am the last person on earth who will support such an atrocity. It is so wrong to screw with a baby's birth in order to make money for anyone .... And the folks behind this should be ashamed of themselves.

The "folks behind this", Brio Birth, say that they want to "normalize" birth.  Putting aside for the moment that watching a birth from all these different angles is anything but normal, even for those of us who have attended hundreds or thousands of births, what no one is saying is that this is not a "normal" situation.  This mother is planning a homebirth after cesarean (HBAC).  Yes, she has already had two vaginal births since her cesarean, and thus has a "proven scar".  This does not mean that her situation is normal.  Aside from the admittedly small risk of rupture,which happens on mothers with proven scars as well as mothers with no scars at all, yes, even in the absence of Pitocin or other such interventions, there is also an increased risk of hemorrhage, among other things.   Birth is natural, but nature is not always kind.  Does this mean that the mother should not give birth at home?  Absolutely not.  She has every right to make the informed choice to give birth where she chooses, with the care provider she chooses.  However, this may not be the ONE BIRTH to choose to show how NORMAL birth is.  If anything goes wrong, which, granted, could happen in any birth, those six cameras are going to contain all kinds of ammunition - not just for any lawsuit that might result, but also for the "birth is a medical event" crowd to pick apart EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of this "non-normal" birth.  Aside from the fact that everyone's actions will be scrutinized, even if nothing goes wrong, this will definitely be on the mind of the midwife, and probably the rest of the birth team as well, and it will definitely impact their actions.  This birth will not be normal.  It will not be representative of normal birth. It will be less safe, and it will be less sacred.  

Monday, October 8, 2012

Karma Will Take Care of It...

... but how?

Those who were scammed by Brio seem to take one of two stances.  The first group is distancing themselves and remaining silent.  They justify their stance with comments such as "Karma will take care of it."  "What goes around, comes around."  "I don't want to put negative energy into the birth world."  "They'll ruin themselves in the end."  The second group is actively trying to warn others and to redress what wrongs they can.  They don't want others to get hurt the way they were - or worse. They want the community to be able to heal and move forward.  They are often criticized, sometimes very harshly, by others for their actions.  My question to those who would rather remain silent is, how can you know when you might have been the one person able to warn the next victim?  How can you know that your action is not what would finally be the tipping point for stopping the scam once and for all?

A former Brio educator shares:

After WWII, some German students volunteered to help rebuild a cathedral in England that had been heavily damaged by Luftwaffe bombings.  As they worked, one of their tasks was to rebuild the statue of Jesus that had stood outside the church.  Jesus' hands were outstretched, and the statue had an inscription that read, "Come Unto Me."  They were able to piece together almost all of the statue, but they could not find Jesus' hands.  Finally, they reached a decision that has taught many a valuable lesson: they left the reassembled statue without hands, and put a new inscription on the statue: "I Have No Hands But Yours."

For those of you who believe that karma will take care of it, how do you know that karma is not trying to use YOUR hands?


Resurfacing

As Brio's scams pick up more steam, this blog will hopefully be doing the same.  I apologize for the long period of silence.  A whole lot of life has gotten in the way of posting here.  I have a few things people have sent me to post, and am working on more of the back story to get newer people more up to speed.  Some of the comments left may inspire posts, too.  I'm afraid the trolls that plagued Brio Vent (and quite possibly some of the arch scammers themselves) have found their way to this blog, and I am going to do all that I can to keep this a SAFE place.  Please remember that the same community rules from Brio Vent apply - no libel, no fact-free or dishonest emotional defenses of Brio (you are welcome to post those to the spaces that they control, where people sharing their negative experiences with Brio are summarily shut down), you are welcome to remain anonymous, but please consider using your name or at least a consistent anonymous user ID.  I do reserve the right to remove posts that are not in line with the goal of this blog.  I encourage you, as a reading community, to self-police, and to e-mail me at birthscamreport@gmail.com if you feel that there is anything on this blog - comment or content - that should be edited, deleted, or even retracted.  I have already responded to requests in this regard, and will continue to do so.  Stay tuned for another post soon, with a lovely bit by an insightful contributor!

Monday, June 4, 2012

Files Now Available

Due to some computer switching issues, there has been a bit of a delay, sorry about that.  I have finally gotten some files posted on the blog.  They include Kyle's phone conversations with Angela Hathaway, court documents from the AAHCC lawsuit, and the Brio Non-Disclosure.  You can access them by using the "Files" tab under the blog header.  If you have any other files of interest, I would be happy to publish them here.  You can send them to me at birthscamreport@gmail.com.   Thank you to those who have provided these files for helping to spread the truth about Brio Birth.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

A New Facebook Group

Birth Professionals of the World is a relatively new Facebook Group started by former members of Birth Professionals of America/Birth Professionals International.  It was created in early March to be a safe, inclusive space.  The admins intend for it to be a space of open sharing, not a money-maker of any kind.  It is worth noting that there are a couple of members in the group whose ties to Brio may arouse suspicion, however, they are not admins.  The admins are trustworthy, and will take action as necessary to avoid drama.  Current and former members of BPI, as well as professionals who were never members of BPI due to its ties to Brio, are joining daily.   If any birth professionals out there are looking for a safe community of birth professionals to join, this may be of interest.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Facebook - Birth Professionals International and Other Pages

This was posted recently by one of the admins on the Birth Professionals International group on Facebook.  Many birth professionals, myself included, have not joined this group because Naomi was an admin.  Others, upon finding out Naomi was an admin, left the group.

"This recently came to my attention: Pregnant women and those who serve them, BEWARE! Kyle Thomas and the very naive Naomi Thomas who head up Brio Birth and Birth Professionals International are at this moment pitching another money-making idea during an admin phone conference that I am choosing not to be a part of. [redacted names of tagged friends] have you seen this. Also, check the court records for multiple assault charges... Yikes!"

A link to the 9 News story on the parking pass scam was included.   Further comments revealed more interesting information:

[Comments originally posted here deleted because they came from a private thread addressing the same topic, not the BPI group. Clarification and the additional comments below were sent by a reader.  Sorry for the confusion.]


"I love this group, but it was a huge concern of mine that Brio and its founders are members of this group. I decided to give it a try, knowing I could always leave if I didn't like it. So far so good. But yeah, if there are thoughts about charging to be a member of this group, I'd start my own."

"Yeah there are only two mods left (three counting Kyle) so [redacted name] shouldn't be part of it"

"What's this about having to pay to belong to this group?"

"From what I gather, the pitch is that BPI turns into a blog and then makes money by having members pay to run ads. I wonder where the money is anticipated to go..."

"Wow :( I don't even know what to say. So is it all a big scam?"

"Ivy Clinger It was never meant to be a scam! The legislator whonwas supposed to sign off on the passes didn't show up to the scheduled meeting. Brio arranged for the interviews, and they spun the story completely wrong. It was a huge disappointment, and the news story is incorrect."


Not surprisingly, the thread was deleted quickly - but not before parts of it were copied and distributed by concerned group members..

In the interest of further caution, here is a list of Facebook pages run by Naomi:


https://www.facebook.com/InaMayGaskin
https://www.facebook.com/fansofhencigoer
https://www.facebook.com/yourdenverdoula
https://www.facebook.com/denverdoula.TM
https://www.facebook.com/briobirth
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BirthPros/
https://www.facebook.com/suzanne.arms

Any content posted on or shared with these pages is going straight to Naomi, and may wind up being used for Brio Birth's profit.  At this time, it is unknown whether Ina May Gaskin is aware of or approves of "her" page.  It is known that Naomi has relationships with Henci Goer and Suzanne Arms.  If anyone knows of any pages run by Naomi that I have not mentioned, please comment or e-mail with that information.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Parking Pass Scam

With the pool of educators from which Brio Birth can con money running dry, they are finding ways to take their scam directly to the pregnant population that we honest birth workers serve.  Their latest effort is to sell women in their third trimester a six-month "courtesy pass" that they can hang in their car and park in handicapped spaces.  Unfortunately, the placards are just as much of a scam as the rest of Brio Birth - they are not valid under the law, and if a woman tried to use it in her third trimester or the rest of the time allotted after the baby was born, she would find herself out not only the price she paid for the hang tag, but also the amount of the parking ticket she'd incur for using a handicapped spot without a valid permit.  When Brio sought media coverage for the "launch" of this effort on the Friday before Mother's Day, Denver channels 4 and 9 answered - with coverage about a scam selling bogus parking passes to pregnant women.  Here are the links to the news stories:

9 News

Channel 4 (via Yahoo News)

Kyle finally got himself on television, but probably not the way he was hoping.  In his efforts to backpedal and deny that he was illegally selling invalid handicapped parking permits, he basically said that people could buy them, but he would not send them out.  So, taking people's money, then not giving them the product or service they paid for - does this sound familiar?

The response essay offered by Brio Birth (search for the comment by "Brio Birth" several comments down) is also full of contradictions, and probably too long for most people to care to read.  Sadly, it appears from the replies that a few people are still fooled.

Backup

[Post updated with a change in approach.  Even though I had the foresight to back up the blog, I was apparently lacking other information or preparation.  Thank you for your patience while I get content reposted.]

Welcome to Birth Scam Report, a temporary source of information and community for readers of the Brio Vent blog.  This blog is not owned, controlled, or endorsed by the owner of Brio Vent.  Under the circumstances, I doubt she'll come after me for plagiarism or anything else.

Brio Vent is temporarily down.  I had a feeling that the Brio Bunch might try to pull something to disable the blog, so I backed up the content.  Since that happened, I published the content on this new blog in order to keep it available to the public.  I have temporarily unpublished the original posts due to some concerns expressed by readers in comments and private messages, but will be rewriting content and posting it as quickly as I am able. This blog is not pretty right now, that will come with time if needed.  There may be some bugs with links that I missed, if that happens please let me know. When the real Brio Vent comes back up, I will gladly turn over any new content posted and delete this blog.

This blog is intended to be like Brio Vent in most ways, but you might have noticed the new picture: a hydra.  The hydra is a character from Greek mythology that had many heads.  If one head was cut off, two heads would grow to replace it.  This blog is a hydra for Brio.  If they cut down one blog that shares the truth about them, a new one will grow in its place.  Maybe even two, or more, if other people want to start blogs to share the truth about Brio Birth, or just mirror this one.  The combined strength of the people they have hurt is bigger than their bullying.

While this blog has a different owner, the purpose remains the same, a safe place to share your truth, and the same rules apply.  Defenders of Brio Birth are welcome to go post on one of the many pages where only positive comments about Brio Birth are allowed.  No libelous statements, but opinions and experiences are welcome.  I do reserve the right to delete comments that run against these guidelines.  If you would like to share a story anonymously, please e-mail me at birthscamreport@gmail.com.  When commenting, you may comment anonymously, but please consider using Name/URL to identify yourself  and/or your post.  Remember that the goal of venting is to share experiences that have been censored on other pages, and to promote healing from what we have all suffered.