Law enacted in Colorado banning the practice of "rebirthing therapy". Governor Bill Owens signed the legislation in April 2001, outlawing a practice that AFAIK is not recognized by the experts. The law is named for Candace Newmaker who died of asphyxiation during one such treatment a year earlier, which they practiced without proper licensing.
The practitioners, Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder, have been found guilty of child abuse which resulted in the girl's death. This therapy was recommended for cases where a child does not respond to mainstream treatments, in this case, reactive attachment disorder. Basically this adopted child avoided forming relationships with others and was disruptive to others. The therapy was intended to give the child the chance to be born to her new mother, to help form that bond (the mother) wanted so badly. How did the therapists set about accomplishing this?
A rebirthing session consists of wrapping the child with oversized swaddling cloth (towels I believe) to mimic the basic effects of childbirth. On top of that isolated, dark, and constrictive sensation, the therapists pummeled the child within those towels to simulate the contractions a newborn might feel. All in attendance ignored the child's pleas for help, her fearful screams that she was in fact going to die. Presumably they wanted this tension to highten until the child was released into the adoptive mother's arms, to form that bond between mother and child.
Unfortunately, Candace was not breathing when removed from the swaddling cloth. Jeane Newmaker, the adoptive mother, will stand trial for negligent child abuse resulting in the girl's death. And the therapists' assistants, Brita St. Clair and Jack McDaniel, will stand trial on child abuse charges. Candace's Law will ban the practice of rebirthing in Colorado.