Candace Newmaker Suffocated During Rebirthing

In April 2000, a 10-year-old girl named Candace Newmaker underwent a 70-minute "rebirthing" session in Evergreen, Colorado, as a purported treatment for reactive attachment disorder. Adults wrapped her in flannel, covered her with pillows to simulate a womb or birth canal, and told her to fight her way out while four of them pressed down on her body. She suffocated during the session, and doctors declared her brain-dead the following day. A court later sentenced two women to 16 years in prison, and the case inspired laws banning dangerous birth reenactments in Colorado and North Carolina.

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