This Pregnant Woman Trusted Her Doctors. Then They Both Betrayed Her

Pregnancy is supposed to be a season of careful joy—doctor visits, nursery mood boards, and steady reassurance that both mother and baby are thriving.

That’s why the newest episode of The Dating Detectives is especially jaw-dropping. In it, hosts Mackenzie Fultz and Hanna Anderson walk through listener Jade’s ordeal with “dogfishing,” a term for pretending to be someone trustworthy to gain access, affection, or power. When that deception comes from the very medical professional meant to safeguard prenatal health, the betrayal cuts deep, beyond any dating app disappointment.

Early in the show, Fultz warns that it’s “definitely a case of someone being a dogfish—that is a massive professional betrayal as well as personal.” Anderson immediately widens the lens, adding that dogfishing from a practitioner ranks among “the worst possible positions that someone can hold if they dogfish you.”

This isn’t just another cautionary dating tale; it is a conversation about power, consent, and medical ethics.

Dogfishing Explained: What Happens When Doctors Do It?

Why dogfishing is more than a dating buzzword

Most people are familiar with catfishing—the fake-profile scam—thanks to the MTV show of the same name. Dogfishing evolved as its sneakier cousin, where the perpetrator leverages a real-life role (doctor, teacher, therapist, or even a dog owner at the park) to project safety. Because the identity itself is genuine, victims tend to drop their guard more quickly. Anderson underscores the fallout when a caregiver exploits that trust, observing that any medical betrayal “would make it really hard not only to trust in relationships, but also to trust doctors.”

Jade’s story shows dogfishing at its most dangerous

When Jade first met Sarah, an ob-gyn resident in Jade’s prenatal care, their relationship was strictly platonic. But the friendship turned romantic a few months after Jade’s son was born. In hindsight, Jade calls the beginning “your classic textbook love bombing. I got flowers and cards often.”

But the attention cooled quickly. Soon, Jane found herself “constantly begging for attention and affection”—and arguments began to replace the early intensity.

This relationship strain left Jade particularly vulnerable to a would-be dogfisher and what would come next.

Enter Dr. Bass, Jade’s ob-gyn and Sarah’s supervising physician. Before Jade’s scheduled C-section, Dr. Bass began blurring professional lines by angling for friendship and adding Jade on Instagram while she was still an patient. After the birth, the story gets even messier when Jade eventually finds erased text messages—flirty, late-night texts—between Dr. Bass and Sarah in the “recently deleted” folder on Sarah’s phone.

The doctor and the ob-gyn resident were in cahoots to triangulate Jade, a pregnant woman, almost into self-harm.

How dogfishing preys on pregnant women’s vulnerabilities

Pregnancy already tilts emotions and hormones. Add postpartum exhaustion, and a dogfisher’s calculated affection feels like life support. Anderson points out that in Jade’s case, “postpartum lasts a long time…how easy can you attach to somebody when you’re postpartum and you’re lonely?”

That attachment, combined with the doctor’s clinical authority, left Jade second-guessing every gut feeling—exactly the confusion a dogfisher counts on.

When Jade finally alerted the medical board, Dr. Bass’s license was briefly suspended—the ultimate result was a reprimand and completion of an ethics course. Jade felt the sanction offered “no justice,” forcing her to seek further legal advice.

As for her relationship with Sarah, that also fell apart as a result of Dr. Bass’s dogfishing. Shortly after the discovery of the affair, Jade confronted Sarah and told her to end things with Dr. Bass. When Sarah refused, Jade ended the relationship. Since then, Jade has been a single mother, raising her two boys, and has no interest in forming another relationship—another fallout from the dogfishing.

Early red flags that hint at a dogfisher

Dogfishing rarely begins with outright misconduct; it typically starts with subtle status flexes. In Jade’s timeline, Dr. Bass crossed lines by befriending a patient mid-treatment, peppering social media likes, and sharing personal dating details over dinner.

Fultz later asks listeners to revisit some of the signs at the beginning of their dogfish debrief because the relationship’s early “love bombing stage” masked deeper control issues. If a professional pushes intimacy—DMs, gifts, or flirty disclosures—before the ink dries on your intake form, consider it a blinking warning light.

Protecting yourself from dogfishing, even when hormones are raging

Boundaries are the antidote. Maintain communication with any caregiver through official channels and in writing whenever possible. Bring a support person to sensitive appointments and trust changes in your comfort level.

For romantic prospects outside the exam room, notice the pacing. Genuine interest builds gradually; dogfishers sprint. They shower attention, then starve you of it—just enough to make you chase them back. That whiplash is emotional currency. Call it out early, and don’t hesitate to step away.

Dogfishing thrives in the gray zones of modern life—DMs that feel harmless, professional titles that command respect, postpartum fog that blurs instincts. When the next charming “dog lover” or overly attentive clinician appears, remember Jade, remember the red flags, and remember that your intuition deserved the last word all along.

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