Masculine Birth Ritual Grover Wehman-Brown

Our final episode is an interview with new Papa, yoga and Buddhism teacher Jacoby Ballard. We talk about the Germination Proclamation he and their partner put out to friends and family, gender and parenting, and preparing to welcome whatever being emerged during birth. 
"I really learned from putting out our Germination Proclamation that really it was like an instruction manual for our families and communities for how to love us in this moment. That was really helpful to everyone from uncles to comrades to see. I think that would be helpful for any parent despite your gender or sexual orientation/identity. It was putting forth a manifesto of how we wanted to be in the germination period and how we wanted to be parents and how we want to ask our communities to rally around us. Since then, people really have shown up in the ways we asked them to. I think even if we hadn't given them clear directions even our most beloved and closest friends might have had some missteps."
https://www.facebook.com/jacoby.ballard
http://jacobyballard.net/

In this interview, Rachel L. Kaplan and I talk about their experience with preterm birth. A friend of Rachel's recently pointed out that there aren't a lot of queer voices being heard about the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU), and even fewer from masculine of center folx -- so she suggested Rachel check out Masculine Birth Ritual. Rachel is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, San Francisco and takes off the professor hat to describe some of the personal challenges of a traumatic preterm birth followed by three weeks in the San Francisco Kaiser NICU. 
 

Our interview today is with Amanda Hayden. Amanda is a certified lactation counselor, social worker, and full-spectrum labor & postpartum doula trained through Ancient Song Doula Services practicing with the NYC Doula Collective. She works a doula and provides counseling and programming support for trans and gender-non-conforming people who are family-building including adoption, family planning, and building relationships. In this episode, we talk about the personal complexity of gender and how they approach ritual and support work with trans and GNC pregnant people and families.
Amanda Hayden:
https://www.amandahaydendoula.com/
http://nycdoulacollective.com/
Show notes, transcription, and contact:
www.masculinebirthritual.com
Instagram: @masculinebirthritual
Patreon: patreon.com/masculinebirthritual

In E13 I talk with Charlie King-Miller about Charlie's experience giving birth in a hospital setting, trying to get listed as "father" on his baby's birth certificate in Colorado, and how he navigated care when he felt that providers weren't listening. 
 
Show notes at:
www.masculinebirthritual.com

In E12 I talk with Greta LaFluer. Greta is an Associate Professor of American Studies at Yale University. They're the author of a book called The Natural History of Sexuality in Early America. In this conversation, she and I talk about western medical ideas about gender and approaches to birth in this period, the ways that genderqueer and Masculine of Center people are found (or not found) in the colonial archives, how legacies of white supremacy and violence are historically tied to white genderqueer AFAB masculinities, and the way sex and gender were understood in the 18th century colonial U.S.

In this interview, Rae Goodman-Lucker and I talk about his experiences in preparing for pregnancy and birthing two children. She shares about her struggle to get doctors to believe the severity of his pregnancy fatigue, how he planned a community ceremony in preparation for pregnancy, and her perspectives on pain management during birth that are derived from queerness. Our kids are playing around us as we talk for this recording, so there's also some really cute moments of parenting in action.
 
Show Notes: masculinebirthritual.com/episodes
Instagram, FB: @masculinebirthritual
Twitter: @Masculinebirth
Patreon: patreon.com/masculinebirthritual