Last week, Karen Carr was convicted of two felonies for her role in the September death of a baby boy she delivered in an Alexandria home. This week, her cellphone keeps ringing with women who want her to deliver their babies.
Carr, 55, is a sought-after midwife willing to take on challenging births at home. By her count, she has delivered about 1,200 of the region’s children over the past two decades, and she has been operating illegally because she does not have a state license.
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The Alexandria delivery was the beginning of what she has called the “unraveling” of her practice. Carr has since been banned from delivering babies in Virginia as part of her plea agreement.
The newborn’s death in Alexandria was followed by another death in rural Maryland in November, a case now under investigation by the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office.
The D.C. Department of Health issued a cease-and-desist order against Carr in January after the death of the baby in Alexandria and another case in the District in October, in which a baby she was delivering had to be rushed to a hospital.
The District’s cease-and-desist order states that investigators discovered that Carr had been delivering babies for “many years” without a license and that she “has caused or may cause immediate and irreparable harm to the public.” The U.S. attorney’s office in the District is investigating Carr’s midwife practice, according to law enforcement sources.
In a recent interview at her home in Baltimore, where she maintains a patient office and a small lab, Carr said she had been “traumatized” by the baby’s death in Alexandria but now regrets pleading guilty to child endangerment because she did everything she could to deliver a healthy baby.
“I feel like I sold my soul,” Carr said.
Alexandria prosecutors Krista Boucher and Shelby Caputo said they pursued the case against Carr not because she is an unlicensed midwife, but because they think she was criminally negligent, waiting too long to call for help that might have saved the baby, among other factors. Health-care professionals referred the case to the commonwealth’s attorney’s office after the baby was pronounced dead at the hospital.
“The lack of integrity and veracity demonstrated by the defendant’s taking advantage of a plea arrangement to her benefit, standing before the court under oath and affirming that she was pleading guilty because she was in fact guilty, and then turning right around and claiming that she did nothing wrong, is extremely disturbing,” Boucher said. “It evidences the same arrogance that got her into trouble in the first place, and it does not bode well for her future clients.”
As part of her plea, Carr received a four-year sentence, all suspended except for several days that she spent in jail in Maryland after her arrest.
Carr has earned an intensely loyal following among women and advocates who believe that mothers should be able to deliver their babies in the comfort of home. She is one of the most visible symbols of a group willing to flout state laws in favor of their principles, namely to give women autonomy in choices regarding the birth of their children.
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