Oregon midwife pleads guilty to delivering Kennewick babies without license

A longtime Oregon midwife is facing two months in jail after admitting she was not licensed to deliver babies in Kennewick.

Sherry Lee Dress, 69, pleaded guilty during a recent hearing in Benton County Superior Court to two counts of practicing a profession without a license.

She had been charged with one felony and one gross misdemeanor, but both counts were amended to gross misdemeanors as part of the plea agreement.

Dress, a midwife for four decades, has never been licensed to practice in Washington. Yet she reportedly has traveled into southeastern Washington for years to work as a midwife during at-home births.

She lives in John Day, Ore.

Her professional Facebook page says she is a certified professional midwife (CPM) and a licensed direct-entry midwife (LDEM).

Dress was hired by two Kennewick mothers to help with their pregnancies and handle their labor and deliveries in spring 2015.

Both families were given birth certificates by Dress that falsely said the babies were born across the state line in Oregon, according to court documents.

Dress already had been warned in November 2013 to stop practicing in Washington when the state secretary of health issued a permanent cease-and-desist order.

Her Oregon license was not renewed by health officials in September 2015 because of violations of unprofessional conduct. Those violations included two births in Pasco and three in Walla Walla in which Dress filed birth certificates saying the babies were born at her then-home in Canyon City.

Then in May 2016 she pleaded guilty in Walla Walla to illegally practicing. Her 364-day sentence was suspended on the condition she pay all court costs and fines and stay violation-free during her two-year probation period.

Kennewick police were contacted about the two cases here when Oregon State Police were investigating Dress for practicing midwifery in several jurisdictions and other criminal activities.

Like her prior Walla Walla case, Dress could get a maximum year in the Benton County jail. Deputy Prosecutor Brandon Pang said the recommendation is for 60 days.

Sentencing is Aug. 9.

This story was originally published July 21, 2017 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Oregon midwife pleads guilty to delivering Kennewick babies without license."