E 16 | Welcoming Whatever Being Came
Masculine Birth Ritual
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.
info_outline
E 15 | Ask Those Questions
Masculine Birth Ritual
In this interview, Rachel L. Kaplan and I talk about their experience with preterm birth and parenting in the NICU . 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.
info_outline
E14 | Meeting People Where They're At
Masculine Birth Ritual
Our interview today is with Amanda Hayden. Amanda is a certified lactation counselor, social worker, and full-spectrum labor & postpartum doula practicing with the NYC Doula Collective. She provides counseling and programming support for trans and gender-non-conforming people who are family-building. We talk about the personal complexity of gender and how they approach ritual and support work with trans and GNC pregnant people and families.
info_outline
E13 | I Would Like It If You Would Listen
Masculine Birth Ritual
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.
info_outline
E12 | We Give It So Much Cultural Power
Masculine Birth Ritual
In E12 I talk with Greta LaFleur. 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, we talk about western medical ideas about gender and birth, how MoC people are found (or not) in the colonial archives, how legacies of white supremacy and violence are tied to white genderqueer AFAB masculinities, and the way sex and gender were understood in the 18th-century colonial U.S.
info_outline
E11 | It's Not Gender Weird, It's Just Weird
Masculine Birth Ritual
In this interview, Rae Goodman-Lucker and I talk about his experiences preparing for pregnancy and birthing two children. She shares her struggle to get doctors to believe the severity of his pregnancy fatigue, how he planned a community ceremony in preparation for pregnancy, and his perspectives on pain management during birth.
info_outline
E10 | She Protected Her Children From the Bear:
Masculine Birth Ritual
Takeya Trayer is an artist, mommy of three children, a teacher, and the author of a children's book "My mommy is my Daddy." We talk about her homebirth, her community's response to pregnancy, how she exited homelessness while parenting two small children, and her series of paintings that feature Black and Indigenous MoC pregnant, nursing, and nurturing figures, and her children's book. Takeya's work: takeyaart.com.
info_outline
E9 | Buffering the Impacts of Discrimination:
Masculine Birth Ritual
In episode 9 I talk with Miriam Zoila Pérez, the author of the Radical Doula Guide and a reporter that writes about the impacts of racism on birth and health outcomes.
info_outline
E8 | He Was With These Wonderful Queers:
Masculine Birth Ritual
In Episode 8 we talk with J Carroll about their experience of pregnancy, birth, and parenting. J is a transmasculine, nonbinary, queer single parent by choice. In this episode, J and I talk about embodiment, how they were supported by their queer community and their family of origin after birth, and how gender influences parenting culture when you're nonbinary.
info_outline
E7 | Leading the Way on Body Sovereignty: part two of a conversation with Sara Flores-Boudreaux
Masculine Birth Ritual
Midwife Sara Flores-Boudreaux joins us for Part 2 of a conversation about supporting MoC two-spirit, queer, trans, and genderqueer people in birth, wellness, and life. We talk about white supremacy, what she's learned about body sovereignty from MoC people, the opportunity for rituals in the model of midwife care, and the relationship between ritual and cultural connection to ancestry and tradition.
info_outlineOur 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."