It's nice to know that even now

[GloGirl]

We are still keeping our birthing people at the centre of our focus with clear maternity guidance from my local hospital. So we don't confuse anyone.

Giving Birth

• One birth partner is allowed when in labour. This will not change and is exempt from the general COVID 19 guidance.
• Birthing people are being discharged home from the delivery suite wherever possible and birth partners can stay with you until you go home.
• If you need to be transferred to the postnatal ward partners are not allowed to go with you.

From our local branch of Maternity Voices.

[TheBewildernessisWeetabix]

Sowing chaos so that no one knows who they can believe on a given subject is an effective strategy of authoritarians. We see it now in regard to the pandemic in Russia, the UK, and the US.

[MrsDoylesTeaBags]

I find the use of language so disturbing, its one of the reasons I stopped going on Twitter.

Some people suffer mental illness or past trauma that causes them to feel a disconnect with their body, I understand that, but by changing language so that everyone has to discuss their body as if its just a lump of flesh is not the way to help them overcome that.

Why are established medical bodies giving way to disturbed individuals rather than addressing that?

I just find it all really scary.

[PertEllaTitsahoy]

It looks as if Women are just being described in terms of the biological functions they are performing, or having performed on them.

I hate to say it, but I can see this ending up with the trauma suffered by women who have been raped bring reduced in the same way. "Vaginas that were raped" because god forbid theres any acknowledgement of the woman going through it.

[MrsDoylesTeaBags]

Its the dehumanising that just gets to me

*Who benefits from this, 'cos is sure ain't women.

*That's a rhetorical question. I know who benefits, just galls me when other women pander to it.

[MoleSmokes]

Totally agree Barracker -

It's such an ugly phrase, apart from anything else.

"I am a pregnant woman"
"I am a woman in labour"
vs
"I am a birthing person"

It literally conjures up the mental image of my vagina performing a function first, and my human existence second.

The focus is entirely upon the bodily process, not the woman with a name, personality and life.

It's the polar opposite to 'woman centred care'

It's functional vagina and uterus attached to a nondescript human animal care.

This is the same dehumanising language that health professions, medical and nursing in particular, have been urged for decades to avoid, eg. "the broken leg needs a bed-pan", "Have we got a discharge plan for the kidney stones in Bed 3?"

It is also unintelligible to the vast majority of people.

There need to be formal complaints put in on both counts whenever it occurs. They are doing patients a serious disservice with this offensive gobbledygook!

Copy and paste from comment on an earlier thread on the same subject:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3809751-please-help-me-articulate-why-this-makes-me-uneasy

I would assume "Birthing person" to mean anyone other than the mother involved with the birth.

This sort of bizarre language is confusing enough if English is your first language and you have a reasonable level of literacy. The aim should be to communicate effectively and think about "hard to reach" groups - not alienate and confuse your target audience.

"How to write medical information in plain English" - Plain English Campaign

Ten tips for clearer writing

1. Think of your audience, not yourself.

Don't try to impress people by using your language to show off: keep it as straightforward as possible. Imagine you are speaking to someone, and write in that more relaxed way.

8. Use everyday words.

Big words, foreign phrases, bursts of Latin and so on usually confuse people. Consequently, it is a sine qua non of plain English not to write too polysyllabically! So, for plain English, use everyday words.

Download guide: www.plainenglish.co.uk/files/medicalguide.pdf

Plain English Awards 2019 include NHS Scotland ‘Ready Steady Baby!’
www.plainenglish.co.uk/campaigning/awards/2019-awards/plain-english-awards.html

Maybe you could suggest that the local "Maternity Voices Partnership" prepare info to a standard that might result in them winning an award from the Plain English Campaign?

[ThePawtriarchy]

For the people driving this, it’s about power, holding it over women and taking it from them (actually, in the way that rape is about power). For the people that go along with it, that’s about lack of intelligence and being unable to use their own logic and brain to see if for what it is.