Preparing for the Trans Baby Boom
by Miriam Pérez
June 18, 2012 - 9:25am
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/06/13/preparing-trans-baby-boomTwo weeks ago I attended the 11th annual Philadelphia Trans-Health Conference, a gathering of individuals, advocates and health providers focused on health topics for trans and gender non-conforming people. At the same conference two years ago, I was the sole doula on a panel about parenting while trans and gender non-conforming — and the only person at the conference talking specifically about pregnancy and birth. This year, we had an entire panel dedicated to the topic, with four trans and genderqueer-identified birth workers — two midwives and two doulas.
This shift in attention toward the issues facing trans and gender non-conforming pregnancy is indicative of a bigger shift overall — more and more trans and gender non-conforming people are giving birth. As Pati Garcia, a Los Angeles doula and midwife-in-training put it during our panel: "We're on the cusp on a trans baby boom."
Trans health as an overall field is still in its nascency. Our understanding of hormone therapies, gender reassignment surgeries, and much more is still being developed, so it's no surprise that the field of pregnancy and parenting for trans people is also new and developing.
