Beyond the Binary: Quinn D.’s Journey Into Inclusive Birthwork

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Education Can Change the Course of a Career

Many future doulas know they are called to this work long before they begin training. Access to education is often the missing piece. Through our doula scholarship program, bebo mia helps students gain the knowledge and confidence to begin supporting families in meaningful ways.

Discovering a Calling Through Parenthood

Hi, my name is Quinn D., I am an artist and writer, a recent birth nerd, and a new parent. In fact, as I write this I am nap-trapped under my newborn.

In a move that might seem slightly unhinged to some, I applied for bebo mia’s Queers For Queers scholarship at 39 weeks pregnant. That means I have been doing the initial course work from the newborn trenches. You might ask: Quinn, why in goddess’ name would you attempt to do a doula certification right now? I know that the timing seems wild, but take it as a sign of just how significant the experience of gestating, birthing, and now caring for a brand new human has been for me.

Reimagining Pregnancy, Identity, and Embodiment

As a trans/nonbinary person who has never quite felt comfortable in my own body, I expected pregnancy to feel dysphoric. However, learning about the things the human body can do during pregnancy and birth ended up being a personal revelation for me. Ultimately, my experience was more empowering and instructive than I ever could have imagined. I feel that it became a part of my transition, in that it further clarified both my thresholds for gender euphoria and gender dysphoria (i.e. who would’ve thought that pregnancy–supposedly the height of femininity–would allow me to grow the full beard I’ve always dreamed of?). This is all to say, I feel inspired and urgent about birth work, specifically with queer birthing parents in mind.

Finding a Home at Bebomia

bebo mia’s program stood out to me because I felt that it would deepen my knowledge of the various experiences pregnant people face when it comes to conception, loss, abortion, birth, and the post-partum period. I also liked that the curriculum acknowledges and advises on working within the structural failures of our global health care landscape. Finally, the self paced and remote elements of the program work great for me as a new parent and are already empowering me to be my own post-partum doula. The reading list in particular is lighting me up!

Creating Safer Spaces for Queer Families

My personal experience with having a baby got me interested in birth work initially, as I recognized a need for both disability-literate and queer/trans professionals in this field. While I had an amazing team supporting me throughout my pregnancy, I still felt the need to continuously advocate for and contextualize my existence as a trans and nonbinary birthing parent. I also needed to consistently self-advocate as a person with an invisible disability that complicated each medical decision. My experiences revealed to me the broader need for body-inclusive and identity-inclusive approaches to birth work, one that encourages gestating parents to embrace their own embodiment as a source of agency and power rather than a source of fear, embarrassment, or even disgust.

As I get deeper into this work, I would love to partner with queer parents—or really any parent who doesn’t quite see themselves as fitting into social binaries—in navigating pregnancy, post-partum, fertility, abortion, loss, and more. Because I am also a writer, I will be documenting my experiences with doula work and exploring the science and embodiment of birth beyond the binary in my newsletter— Not Your Mother’s.

Discover What’s Possible

The right training can help transform your passion into meaningful work. Learn more about our full spectrum doula training or apply for a doula scholarship to begin your path.