Childbirth International

[pigsknickers]

I hadn't heard of this organisation before, but Facebook in it's wisdom kept showing me a sponsored link to a training course they're doing on childbirth trauma. So I had a look, and they are daintily avoiding the words "women" and "mothers" throughout, instead referring to "birthing individuals" and other bullshit (sorry, betesticled bovine shit) terms. The fuckers have now deleted my comments pointing out that woman isn't a dirty word, and that it's appalling to remove these words from discussions around maternal and post-natal healthcare, since the often poor quality of these is a massive feminist issue. They've also stopped me from commenting anymore so I've had to hide the thread as it's making me too cross and spoiling my day. Venice Allen was getting involved though; generally the discussion wasn't going their way. Just wanted to vent a bit, and wondered if anyone else has been on that thread or has come across Childbirth International.

I used not to believe in conspiracy theories, ever. But now I catch myself wondering whether these organisations (esp some of the period poverty ones, and of course the vagina museum) weren't set up with the covert intention of cornering the market in that particular area. Making it harder for a gender critical /woman centred & truly feminist org to get funded. A young woman now, wanting to get involved in action for women, would struggle to find anywhere that didn't somehow centre the feelings of men. It will probably be second nature to many of them anyway, if they've received certain training in schools (actually some of us centred the feelings of men for far too long without the help of that ).

I know. It's really upsetting. Childbirth trauma, period poverty, abortions (or lack of access to). I find it really distressing to be told by organisations supposed to be helping alleviate these problems, that these aren't women's issues. And refusing to even use the word woman in case it offends. And just deleting criticism without engaging. It's fucking horrible.

I hadn't really thought of it the way you'd described before, but it actually sounds quite plausible at the moment.

Just came across this just now in an article by Glinner. I am appalled.

medium.com/t/@glinner/one-week-in-the-war-on-women-abortion-special-351cf42d9d5