It’s a Girl!: Gender and Pagan Birthing

I just got the word that I’ll be making a presentation at the Pagan Alliance’s 1st Annual Conference on Earth-Based, Nature-Centered, Polytheistic & Indigenous Faiths, 2011 Theme: Gender & Earth-Based Spiritualities.

The conference will be on Saturday, September 24 in San Francisco (the page linked to above has all the conference details, but the time of my presentation is going to change).

My presentation will be

It’s a Girl!: Gender and Pagan Birthing

It’s a girl!  It’s a boy!  The announcement of sex at birth is just one of many ways that gender matters when Pagans bring new babies into the world. This presentation will provide an overview of what Pagan parents, birth professionals, and clergy need to consider about gender during pregnancy and birth, and it will introduce frameworks for approaching these issues. “It’s a Girl!” will be an interactive presentation so come prepared to participate.  This event will also be the first public presentation of the new website Pagan Families: Resources for Pagan Pregnancy and Birth.

The conference program, full of smart, creative people, is part of some really important ongoing conversations about gender in the Pagan communities.  Pregnancy and birth can represent such a critical time for gender experience – I’m pleased that the organizers agreed that the topic belongs at the conference.

One of my goals for participating in this conference is to bring the Pagan Families website into the ongoing dialogue about gender.  Here’s how you can participate:

1. If you’re in San Francisco, come to the conference, and add your voice to this session on birthing.
2. If you’re a writer, this would be a great time to submit a contribution to Pagan Families related to gender.  It would be fantastic to get a whole series going, thinking about the gendering of babies, parents, clergy, birth professionals, and the gods who attend to pregnancy and birth.
3. If you’re a reader, help get the conversation rolling by answering a simple (or not so simple!) question in the comments: Did you learn the sex of your baby before birth?  Why or why not?