BrooklynDoula’s blog

When I was more heavily involved in my academic pursuits, I wrote a paper about reproduction and procreation that argued that the facts of life needed to be more thoroughly investigated as our understandings of procreation and reproduction are saturated with cultural meanings including gendered politics and ideologies about sex difference and sexualities. In that paper I stated that procreation and reproduction hold a unique place in Western constructions of kinship, gender, and sexuality: central to bio-gentic notions of kinship, embedded in and naturalizing a binary of sexed bodies (and therefore gender), and marking off 'natural sex' (coitus) and (hetero)sexuality from 'unnatural' and deviant forms. Given this power, I agrued that anthropologists engaged in denaturalizing projects were repeatedly identifying cultural conceptualizations of procreation and reproduction as productive of the naturalized beliefs that they were seeking to challenege. This repeated stumbling upon our understandings of the 'facts of liffe' was circumscribing their analytical efforts and as such, limiting the scope of their theorectical interventions. Calling into question the stability and naturalness of these processes and constructing alternative visions of each was the goal of my analysis in that essay. 

Today is was a big surprise to welcome my twin niece and nephew into the breathing world. Last night my sister in law, Shail, noticed some blood followed by a leak of fluids. She is 33 weeks now and was planning a homebirth in Northern California. we thought we would see one baby in mid-August, but when they went into the hospital in the middle of the night, an ultrasound shocked us all with the news of twins! their midwives had not heard or felt the second baby, so this was real news.

Shail had a c-section later this morning because of breech and she is now recovering with her two babies. Each baby was around 4 pounds (4 lbs 1 oz and 3 lbs 11 oz) and they are both stable but needing some time to grow. The girl is having a more difficult time and so please send her your love. The babies do not have official names as of yet because only one gender-neutral name had been selected for the baby and now they need to figure out who to give it to! So far they are calling them Slate (the girl) and Tully (the boy).

Please join me in welcoming them to the world and send your good thoughts for their quick growth and trip home from the hospital. 

My last birth was an epic one with days of labor and slow progression but an amazingly strong mama who birthed a big healthy baby! Early this morning I attended a quick birth. I had thought that last night would be a perfect night for my client to give birth (avoiding a non-stress test and such). I layed out all my things assuming she would call and then at 1 am when she did, I was so happy to hear from her! Water had broken and she was starting to feel contractions. I went over within an hour and things were going quickly. Within 45 minutes we decided to head into the hospital since she was planning to birth about 25 minutes by car away (in good traffic, which thankfully we had!). By the end of the car ride her contractions were shifting towards pushing contractions and I was hearing the small grunting sounds that often accompany this shift. 

This weekend a client began labor on Saturday and birthed her amazing baby on Monday around noon. She labored long and hard all day Sunday, trying everything I suggested with calm resolve. I was so proud of her for having the vaginal brith she wanted even though things were very long and slow. Her baby was big, with a hand by her face, and not in an optimal position so she had to work extra hard. The birth was so beautiful with everyone so happy when the baby finally arrived and her parents smiling with such joy as they kissed their new baby and each other. Beautiful!

On Thursday May 8th I'll be giving a babywearing class at Boing! in South Slope (7th Avenue at 16th Street) at NOON. I'll have over 20 carriers to demonstrate with and participants can get help with any carriers they already have as well. Cost is $10.

Check out Big Bird getting a lesson in breastfeeding! I just uploaded a new video clip - check it out in the videos section.