Ahri Golden thinks people don’t talk about birth nearly enough.

“Even if it’s your neighbor, even if it’s your family member, it’s not talked about,” Golden says. “It’s an incredibly universal experience, whether you’ve given birth or not, and it’s still taboo.”

Golden, a Kansas University graduate living in Berkeley, Calif., is hoping to spark a nationwide discussion on birthing with the Birth Tour, a series of presentations and conversations that makes a stop Sunday in Lawrence.

The tour is one branch of an hourlong audio documentary about birth that Golden is working on for Public Radio International.

“It’s really to spark a dialogue about how people are giving birth in America right now,” Golden says. “I want people to connect about something so personal and so intimate. It’s a way people can really get together.”

Golden will lead a conversation on birthing at the first-ever Pregnancy and Childbirth Fair organized by the Heartland Doula Assn. The fair will be from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at SpringHill Suites by Marriott, 1 Riverfront Plaza. The Birth Tour portion of the fair will run from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The fair will feature vendors and experts who will talk about options for giving birth, how a pregnancy and children affect marriages, and other parenting advice.

“We were looking to bring together the childbirth network in Lawrence,” says Julie Hudson, one of the fair’s organizers.

So far, the Birth Tour has stopped in Ashland and Portland, Ore., and Santa Fe, N.M. It will continue with stops in Boulder, Colo., and Berkeley, Calif.

Golden, a 1999 KU alumna with a degree in English, got the idea for the documentary and the tour after giving birth to her son 17 months ago. She gave birth at home, but she says the documentary and tour aren’t meant to advocate for home birth.

“It’s a piece about all the ways women give birth in America, from an anthropological perspective, a historical perspective and a physical perspective,” she says. “We’re such a technocratic society. Technology is almost like a godlike figure, and unfortunately there are a lot of mothers feeling isolated in the journey. We’re not trusting ourselves and what our bodies are capable of doing. We’re not hearing stories of positive birth.”

Women also aren’t having conversations about all their options for childbirth, Golden says. Topics likely to come up in both the tour and the documentary include home birth, epidurals, midwives and doulas.

Golden says most of her interviews for the documentary are complete, but she will tour Lawrence Memorial Hospital, 325 Maine, to help complete her research. The documentary is set for distribution in the spring.

Hudson is especially excited to have the Birth Tour be part of the fair, which she hopes becomes an annual event.

“I think it’s incredible they’re doing it,” she says. “What I’m hoping for is an honest discussion nationwide for what the climate of birth is, and what really are the choices women can make that aren’t necessarily default choices.”