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.