Queer couples’ narratives of birthing: a B.C. focus on the intersections of identity, choice, resources, family, policy, medicalization, and health in the experiences of queers birthing

This thesis focuses on the narratives of 10 queer couples’ birthing experiences in British Columbia. Not only does this thesis add to the continually growing anthropological interest in reproduction and kinship, but it also is able to reflect very practically on two recent changes in British Columbia: 1) the regulation of midwifery in 1998, and 2) the legal possibility of having two women named on their child’s birth certificate, since 2002. Three large themes arose from the research narratives: 1) the choices and experiences of having a ‘medical’ and/or ‘natural’ birth, 2) defining what ‘kinship’ and ‘family’ mean, and how roles and recognition are managed in a queer-parented family, and 3) how bureaucracies understand and deal with queer-parented families. In the end, this thesis provides an important and unique look at birthing and familial recognition in one of the most queer-friendly places in the world.