Midwives Sue State Alleging Bias Is Hurting Maternity Care Access in Colorado

By: Daliah Singer | The Colorado Sun

Kalie Caler was 8 years old when she decided that she wanted to deliver babies for a living. Born and raised in Pagosa Springs, she completed midwifery school in Florida before moving home to start Mountain Roots Midwifery in 2019. 

As the only midwife in town, she delivered more than a dozen babies during her first year, traveling an hour or more to support clients as far away as Mancos, Durango and Crestone. She also birthed all three of her own children at home. 

Then, in February 2022, one of her clients went into labor and the birth didn’t go as expected. The baby boy wasn’t breathing when he was born. Caler resuscitated him, and her assistant called an ambulance. By the time they arrived, Caler says, the mom’s vitals were crashing. She was transferred, in a snowstorm, to Pagosa Springs Medical Center, where there is no obstetrician or neonatal intensive care unit, and then to Mercy Hospital in Durango, where she died. 

A friend of the mother’s, who Caler had never met, filed a complaint against the midwife through the Department of Regulatory Agencies. In the four years since, Caler has not been permitted to practice. DORA’s investigation into her actions on that winter day is still ongoing. 

In July, Caler will become the first midwife in Colorado to go to trial in administrative court since midwifery was legalized in the state in 1993 (after being restricted in 1976). 

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE COLORADO SUN