Midwives told to stop using terms such as 'breastfeeding' and 'breastmilk'

[MissMoped]

because it’s not gender inclusive language, I believe with particular reference to the transexual debate.

This is at Brighton and Sussex nhs trust btw, good to know NHS money is being spent wisely btw, poring over the “incorrect” use of language.

The word “mother” apparently should not be used on its own; instead “mother or birthing parent” (um, isn’t that a mother?).

Breast milk and breastfeeding is to be replace by “breast/chest milk” or “milk from the feeding parent”. “Woman” should be replaced with “woman or person”.

Gobsmacked.

@borntobequiet

From th Guardian link above: The patient had taken hormone therapy for six years, but had not had gender reassignment or breast augmentation before she approached doctors. Reisman and Goldstein used a framework known to induce lactation in cisgender women who had not experienced a pregnancy to promote the patient’s lactation. So the patient was an intact male, albeit taking female hormones. The patient took a gradually increasing regimen of the female hormones progesterone and estradiol, stimulated her chest with a breast milk pump, and took domperidone, a nausea medication known to increase milk production. Domperidone is used internationally but it is not approved in the US, because in some intravenous instances it produced cardiac arrhythmias, cardiac arrest and sudden death. Doctors said the case shows “modest but functional lactation can be induced in transgender women”. In other words, not enough milk is produced to nourish a baby. Breastfeeding women are not usually encouraged to take unnecessary medication, in fact most are reluctant to do anything that might cause harm to the child. Which prompts the question: why do this?

I notice quite how much effort was made there unlike a lot of women who's experiences breastfeeding are ignored or hindered.

I remember requesting medication for poor milk production and had to self supplement.

Similarly I remember difficulty feeding my second and in distress and being told I couldn't have medication to stop milk production either.

Find your own way females!

Words matter.

It’s misleading for them to call it gender additive language when the entire department is being renamed. Words are added and then the original word gets taken away- what’s the point in saying mother and birthing parent, it’s long winded, let’s just say birthing parent that covers everyone. Let’s not say sex and gender let’s just say gender, that covers everyone etc. It’s language creep and it does have an impact.
And let’s not forget it is a health organisation proposing to use entirely inaccurate wording (chest feeding) with patients. Even if it’s just with FTM trans it’s still biologically inaccurate language, crazy that the NHS would think that’s ok!

I’m a breastfeeding mother and gender inclusive language is not harmful to me, but may help others. This doesn’t bother me at all.

Very good post, this is what I think too.

Changing language is potentially harmful though.

I wonder if an impact assessment has been done on the impact to people with English as a second language or with learning difficulties of accessing care?

I've never heard of a Perinatal Unit until this morning.

It's in addition to language, no erasure, only addition

@LordOfTheOnionRings

It's in addition to language, no erasure, only addition

So is the sign going to say Maternity and Perinatal Unit or just Perinatal?

There is legislation passing tomorrow which erases the words woman and mother in relation to pregnancy

Our words are being removed by stealth and without consultation at the highest level.

The Equality Act clearly uses the words mother and woman. The fact that a piece of legislation is being used with out those words in respect of pregnancy is clear erasure of our language.

@Stompythedinosaur

I’m a breastfeeding mother and gender inclusive language is not harmful to me, but may help others. This doesn’t bother me at all.

Very good post, this is what I think too.

But the whole point of the inclusive language means you aren't a breastfeeding mother... You're a chest feeding person....

You aren't using inclusive language.

For reference it is this bill that is being passed

Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances Bill

You can see for yourself.

Very good post, this is what I think too

Would the fact that there have been no calls as of yet to change language around mens health care.

Do you see it as unfair that it only goes one way?

If the change in language makes information less accurate then I think that can be harmful, whether it bothers you personally or not.

I’m sure the same health trust is also busy changing all its information around prostate cancer to ‘men & ppl with prostates’ as we speak

(Is it bollocks!)

I don't know a single trans person who objects to the terms breastfeeding and breast milk and I know quite a lot of trans adults.

But as a woman who has spent seven and half years of my life breastfeeding, I do not feel harmed or erased by this. Just a little bemused.

Begs the question who is this for unmarkedbythat

So presumably this has implications for breast cancer too? Because I'd imagine chest cancer is actually not the same as breast cancer in a medical sense.

Well on the face of it replacing the term breastfeeding to chest feeding is funny. It is so funny it feels as though it ought to be on a comedy sketch and not happening in real life.

But it is not funny. Language matters. The words we use to describe ourselves matter.

@Stompythedinosaur

I’m a breastfeeding mother and gender inclusive language is not harmful to me, but may help others. This doesn’t bother me at all.

Very good post, this is what I think too.

That’s very lovely but I think if you two read the thread you have missed the point somewhat.

Pp says ‘I am a breastfeeding mother’ - that’s how she regards herself. But this terminology is what is being removed.

The busy midwife hasn’t really got the time to stop and remember each patient’s personal preferred pronouns and which term they are comfortable with for their body so will just go with what is easiest.

The easiest option will be to use the terms that doesn’t get their job threatened so it will be the same term for everyone ie you will be a chest feeding birthing parent (or birthing body) which you may be completely fine with but as you can see from other comments, many find to be unpleasant, dehumanising and irrelevant.

It strikes me that your empathy is somewhat exclusionary. Feeling lots of empathy for one very specific group and none for the group currently (but not for long) known as women.

Of course it's Brighton and Sussex

I’m all for trans people being supported and having language used that’s relevant and appropriate for them, but surely it should be the exception rather than the rule for everyone?!

But the whole point of the inclusive language means you aren't a breastfeeding mother... You're a chest feeding person....

You aren't using inclusive language.

I can both define myself as a mother and not feel threatened by the professionals who I work with using more neutral language. No one is trying to stop me referring to myself in the way that fits for me.

The bill is designed to allow Ministers who have given birth to remain in post and receive Maternity Allowance, otherwise, as office holders and not employees, they would have to stand down and another person be appointed. It’s being passed now to accommodate Suella Braverman’s maternity. (I have zero regard for her as a Minister, but don’t see why any mother should have to give up her job because she’s pregnant.)
I’ve got no objections to the wording of the Bill itself, even though it refers to person not mother as it’s a dry legal text, though I suppose it could be used to set a precedent. The research briefing commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9133/
uses the words woman and mother throughout.

Wording such as 'Women and people' is not only unnecessary, it is misleading as it implies incorrectly that there are other people who get pregnant and give birth.
Exactly. Adding words my arse. They add the new words- mother AND birthing people, and a couple of years ( months? this campaign seems to be rocket fuelled) later birthing people replaces mother.
Everyone has a mother. A biological mother. That mother may be absent, terrible or wonderful but everyone came out of a mother, a woman. Why are they so Hell bent on removing female biology from language? And why are some women saying they don't mind? "Oh, it's alright, I don't mind including the new language, I'll move over, it doesn't harm me..."
Wake up!! Changing language to remove women from a thing only women can do harms all of us.
And God yes to the pp who mention Black women's woeful maternity care . Spend the money on fixing that, not mangling your comms NHS!

I can both define myself as a mother and not feel threatened by the professionals who I work with using more neutral language. No one is trying to stop me referring to myself in the way that fits for me

But men aren't being asked to be inclusive like this. There are no penis havers , ejaculators, people with prostate cancer.

Doesn't it bug you even a little bit that men get to call themselves men?

If you wouldn’t want to be known as ‘birthing parent’, why would you want someone who has had a hard time with their gender identity to be called ‘mother’ when they don’t want to and when there is an easy solution to make them feel more comfortable?

Possibly because if that person chooses to have a child they are a mother. As that trans man who wanted to be named as father on their child’s birth certificate, thus rendering them motherless, discovered. The entire thing is completely fucked up and the worst thing is that this is producing children who are doomed to be fucked up from the moment they’re born.

Also perinatal servicesdoesn't do the job of maternity services in my opinion. Perinatal means "around birth". A woman is pregnant for nearly a year; birth is the end and the outcome but the condition of pregnancy has a lot of stages, needs and complications which are only tangentially related to birth, not least the care of the mother's wellbeing and mental health. Perinatal has been selected it seems in this case purely because it sounds very gender neutral and scientific, but doesn't actually describe the service provided properly (as well as being unnecessarily scientific given the context of prioritising inclusive language over biologically accurate language). It runs the risk of women (or indeed, "pregnant people") feeling that this service is all about their baby rather than them, which is a massive issue in maternity care as it is.

If they're so keen to be inclusive, why not just call it Pregnancy care/pregnancy services? I can only assume because either the word "pregnancy" itself has been deemed too gendered, or because using plain language makes HCPs feel less important (the cachet of "perinatal" vs the bread and butter of "pregnancy"). Neither of these reasons does anyone much credit, not does it suggest a drive to be truly inclusive of, for example, those with limited education/English as a second or third language/those with cognitive disabilities or SEN.

In fact while I'm on it,it be really interested from a linguistics perspective as to how these changes and recommendations make their way into translated literature for patients with other languages. I mean in our trust every standard document/form/ letter is made available in a wide range of languages and scripts, due the the diversity of the population. Does the Bangladeshi/Sylheti/Romanian version of this policy document/updated guidance accommodate these new terms for "birthing people" and "chestfeeding" and if so from a native speakers' perspective how doe these attempts come across?