Brighton midwives told to say “front hole”

Given the outrageous failures in NHS maternity care in some parts of the country, I would have thought there were more pressing issues to worry about.

The only time I've heard that term is in Derry Girls! Michelle Mallon says it a lot.

Ante natal preparation includes all sorts of thinking around things like birth plan, post birth care, learning how to care for, feed and nurture a baby. Learning to be comfortable with the use of the word vagina and all of the other body parts essential to a mother is part of that preparation. If you can't do that, think twice before you have a baby. Babies need grownups to be their parents ffs

When my DDs were really very small (preschool) I did use the word hole when explaining about childbirth. So the front hole is called the urethra and is where pee comes out, the middle hole is called the vagina and is where babies come out and the back hole is called the anus and is where poo comes out. I was pregnant at the time and there were lots of discussions about the baby. Hole was the easiest word to use that my preschoolers understood. We never spoke about 'front bottom' though, hate all the twee terms so when DD asked what that area was called I said vulva.

I find the FH terminology crass. I won't accept it when referring to myself. Nor am I a chest feeder. I'll keep my feminine identity and terminology for myself, thanks.

Typical for Brighton 😂

If you can have a 'female penis' [sic], surely by the same logic you can have a 'male vagina' [sic]. In clown world, anyway ...

“Front hole” is language taken from a pornified view of the world in which the vagina is something you put things in.

You're way overthinking this. "Front hole" is simply child terminology, no more, no less.

Tabby, there is some research. It seems black women have a higher risk for some pregnancy related conditions (like pre-eclampsia) but that a lot is due to subconscious bias where midwives listen less to black mothers which is horrific.

I read a heartbreaking article written by a woman who (if I remember correctly) was an obstetrician looking into it and had an increasing amount of black mothers insisting that she would take them on as patients as they felt safer and listened to in a different way.

I find it outrageous that this is an issue in this day and age and I think extra training in this area should be standard.

That resources are spent on some barmy vocabulary training is outrageous.

www.birthrights.org.uk/2021/11/11/new-mbrrace-report-shows-black-women-still-four-times-more-likely-to-die-in-pregnancy-and-childbirth/

‘Wank pillows’ is no more ridiculous than ‘front hole’ in my opinion. op is right, medical professionals should use correct anatomical language. If someone requires psychological support then this can be given by being compassionate to their distress, but mangling language is not the answer.
There are millions of women to whom it is distressing hearing dehumanising words being used about their anatomy and we matter too.
Correct anatomical terms and compassionate/ neutral support where necessary by midwives/ obstetricians. How do medical professionals deal with anorexics? They surely use correct terms but are supportive in their care. They don’t refer to weight in weird reductive terms do they?
Older pregnant women get called geriatrics fgs!
Pregnant women who are older/ overweight/ underweight etc all have to listen to correct (if blunt) terms. Why is it so different for a gender dysphoric woman?

Perhaps midwives wanted some support on whats best to when the person in labour identifies as male. It must be a bit of a minefield for them.

I dont think the idea is to force it on all mothers. I dont think my midwife said anything about vaginas or vulvas but she did mention cervix, labia and perineum- so I think they need to be clear about what is or isnt dilating/tearing/stretching/being cut etc for consent purposes.

Which is what I’m saying. It’s absurd to use any term that isn’t clinically correct and is potentially ambiguous. You are pretending all patients are allowed to insist on that. They are not

I am not pretending, and using terms that the patient understands and prefers is at the core of the respectful treatment you wish to champion.

There is no 'end point' other than the maintenance of the existing professional standards

@VikingVolva * (There are whole sections in PLAB that cover the vocabulary doctors who are non-native speakers need to both understand and use to help deliver effective patient-oriented care)* Though can understand in a diverse population a sensitivity to preferred language is a way of delivering personalised service, is there a danger in then being required to remember colloquialisms.

This brings to mind an episode of Call the Midwife from a few years ago. An older woman was suffering from a prolapse but couldn't see the doctor about it as she did not have the language to describe it. By reducing the vagina to a hole you are removing the language necessary to describe what is happening.

To be fair these obsfucations are not new - I recently received a questionnaire asking me about my 'waterworks'!

It's not a hole though is it! It's a complex structure.

No it isn’t. I would not be allowed to insist on a midwife calling my breasts my “wank pillows”

Would you do that, or is this more reduction ad absurdam?

And would you be happy people were instructed to always refer to them as mammary glands, because that's a preferred medicalised term?

If someone starts requesting an offensive or other problematic term then you deal with that if and when it arises.

Otherwise you go with the terminology the patient understands and prefers, and I would relaly not want to see a change to professional standards on that

(There are whole sections in PLAB that cover the vocabulary doctors who are non-native speakers need to both understand and use to help deliver effective patient-oriented care)

It's bizarre to think there was so much progress in teaching girls and women to not be shamed or embarrassed to call their body parts the correct terms like vagina and labia. And now to hear those same words are triggering and loaded.

Just a thought, how is language being adjusted for penis-havers? Despite the threats to rape with their "lady cocks", I'm sure penis terminology must be v upsetting. So perhaps "small flesh extension"? "Exterior urinating flap"?

Brighton. But if there were Oop her, Oop north like, would it be front passage?
" Eeh 'ilda, take t' bins out t'front passage, like"