Queer Birthing
Examining
Queer Birthing
Building on my clinical expertise as a perinatal nurse (RN), and a member of queer communities, I have examined the practices of birthing where gender and queer practices intersect.
Despite many societal and cultural advances, the institution of birthing retains many of its historically constructed norms and continues to privilege heterosexuality (i.e., perpetuates the view that most people birthing are straight and/or identify as women). Despite health care providers being well intended, they are often unaware of the institutional pervasiveness of heteronormative practices, and the ways in which they potentiate harm resulting in negative health outcomes for 2SLGBTQ+ people.
The aim of my work, and those I have collaborated with, is to examine, often through story and more recently arts-based methodologies, the gendered nature of birth, and the discriminatory harms that occur from heterosexism, transphobia, homophobia, and intolerance deeply rooted in our current health care structures.
I invite you to view the research findings throughout this section: video, reports and publications. Collectively, they provide useful information to contribute to best practice guidelines, continuing education and educational curricula for health care providers working with 2SLGBTQ+ communities, including those who are birthing, particularly when understood in the broader body of evidence in relation to the context of 2SLGBTQ+ health.
Experiences of Queer Women
& Their Perinatal Care Providers
Queer Birthing Articles
What to expect when you aren’t expected: Bringing queer birthing lives from story to stage
Vulnerability, harm, and compromised ethical principles revealed by the experiences of queer birthing women in rural health care
Relationships and rural health practices: The experiences of LGBQ women and their perinatal care providers
Addressing trauma informed care in queer birthing women in rural Nova Scotia
Queer phenomenology, sexual orientation and health care spaces: Learning from the narratives of queer women and nurses in primary health care
Queering the birthing space: Phenomenological interpretations of the relationships between lesbian couples and perinatal nurses in the context of birthing care
Queer Birthing
Workshops
As a Certified Caritas Coach, with expertise in queer birthing practices, caring science and equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, I am delighted to be offering workshops to explore new ways of understanding how and why compassion is a necessary tool to work across difference to foster spaces and places of belonging for all to thrive.
