It’s a Double-Header Night! Explore two different approaches to making a family with two timely talks. Join us for this event at 6:00pm and get FREE admission to the 7:30pm event with Angela Tucker, Catherine Ceniza Choy, and Samira Mehta, discussing Stories of Transracial Adoption. To claim the offer, purchase a ticket to either event and let the Box Office staff know you’re staying for both events during check-in.
What are the social and political forces that shape pregnancy and motherhood in America and how do we balance them with our own experiences?
Journalist Rebecca Grant provides a never-before-seen look at the changing landscape of pregnancy and childbirth in America — and the rise of midwifery — told through the eyes of three women who all pass through the doors of the same birth center in Portland, Oregon.
There’s Alison, a teacher whose long path to a healthy pregnancy has led her to question a traditional hospital birth; T’Nika, herself born with the help of a midwife and now a nurse hoping to work in Labor & Delivery and improve equality in healthcare; and Jillian, an office manager and aspiring midwife who works at Andaluz Birth Center, excited for a new beginning, but anxious about how bringing a new life into the world might mean the deferral of her own dreams.
In Birth: Three Mothers, Nine Months, and Pregnancy in America, Grant details the ups downs, fears, joys, and everyday moments of each woman’s pregnancy and postpartum journey, offering a rare look into their inner lives, perspectives, and choices in real time — and addresses larger issues facing the entire nation, from discrimination in medicine and treatment (both gender and race-based) to fertility, family planning, complicated feelings about motherhood and career, and the stigmas of miscarriage and postpartum blues.
Rebecca Grant is a freelance journalist based in Portland, Oregon, who covers reproductive rights, health, and justice. She has received grants and fellowships from the International Women’s Media Foundation, the International Reporting Project, and The Investigative Fund, reporting stories around the U.S. and the world. Her work has appeared in NPR, The Atlantic, VICE, The Nation, The Washington Post, Mother Jones, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, HuffPost, and The Guardian, among other publications.
Amy Bhatt is a writer, educator, and content creator who focuses on diversity, gender equity, and inclusion. She earned her Ph.D. in Feminist Studies from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA and was an Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, until 2020. She has written for and appeared in news outlets such as NPR, The Conversation, AsiaGlobal Online, The Seattle Times, and many others. She is the author of High-Tech Housewives: Indian IT Workers, Gendered Labor, and Transmigration (2018) and co-author of Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest (2013) with Nalini Iyer.
Presented by Town Hall Seattle.
