Jeramie @ SQUAT
My name is Ryan Pryor. I am working on a study/oral history collection project- carrying out spoken and written interviews with queer and gender non-conforming birth workers.
My primary goal for the project is to bring together some of the perspectives and experiences of queer and(/or) gender non-conforming birth workers; to better understand the knowledge and perspectives we bring to our varied work and to create a forum to share our perspectives and experiences. I hope that accomplishing this goal might allow our perspectives to be increasingly represented within the fields of birth work and health care more broadly, including in education and in client care. Birth work in my mind includes working as a full spectrum doula, a midwife, or any other formal or informal role. The study is open to anyone who identifies as a birth worker in any way. I use queer in this letter as an umbrella term that references sexual orientation without specifying gender. Participants might self identify as queer, gay, lesbian, bisexual, same gender loving, being a man who has sex with men, a woman who has sex with women, or any other personal identities.
The project was initially structured to fulfill part of my 3-year midwifery education program at Maternidad La Luz, a midwifery school I attended in El Paso, TX. Over the past year, the project has evolved somewhat. I have been incredibly inspired by the perspectives and insights of the birth workers who I have interviewed. My desire is to present the integrity of everyone's voices in a collective. While the project will likely take several years to complete, my goal and hope is to complete the majority of interviews this spring. The end result may be a formally structured qualitative study. But more likely it will be an artistic presentation. I have been speaking with my partner, who's a filmmaker, and another close friend, about developing a free-form documentary over the next couple of years. This documentary could include a wide range of contributions such as art, in person interviews, etc.
The interviews would be open ended and focus on whatever you choose to share. With interviews so far, I have asked guiding questions on topics including personal identity, experience working in health care and with pregnant and birthing people, your experience during your birth related education, your philosophy about birth, etc. That said, I am open to any way any person would like to structure a conversation. This study is broadly aimed at queer and gender non-conforming birth workers, however it is based in the idea that no part of our identities are isolated from the others; race, class, ethnicity, nationality, language, geography, ability, experiences of trauma and survival, raising children, occupation, work and education experience all make up who we are and what we bring to our work in well person, pregnancy, birth and postpartum care. Additionally, each participant can choose the level of participation and confidentiality that they prefer.
A little more about me: I am queer and transgender, genderqueer identified midwife (CPM) and aspiring family health nurse practitioner. I was raised primarily in Great Falls, VA, a suburban town near Washington D.C., and I have lived the majority of my adult life in the New York City area. I am white and I have Polish, Ukrainian, Romanian, British, German and Welsh heritage. I was raised very wealthy and Catholic in a politically-conservative family (mom, dad, 2 younger brothers) who I have a complicated and loving relationship with. English is my primary and only fluent language; as an adult I have learned to speak and write Spanish moderately well. I attended a small liberal arts college in New York and have spent my adult life working for non-profit organizations (primarily with queer and transgender youth in New York City), cooking at a summer camp in Vermont, and studying and then working as a midwife in El Paso, TX. I currently live in Austin, TX where I am taking pre-nursing classes and working in a small, non profit hospice that serves people with HIV/AIDS. I am moving to Philadelphia in a couple of months to begin a graduate RN/NP family nurse practitioner program.
It is possible to participate through an interview on the phone or in person. The will be scheduled at your convenience in April or May, 2011. If you are not available at this time, please let me know when you would ideally like to be interviewed. Participation in any form is welcomed - for example, letters, art work, or I can provide a written set of questions. Please feel free to pass this letter freely.
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