Persons of child bearing potential

[whatnow41]

Or they could have said Women and girls, given that they have also covered off transgender and non-binary people who were born female further down.

@FreezerBird

Does the campaign for plain English still exist? I'd love to see their take on this.

In a former public sector job I was tasked with rewriting all our leaflets to make them plainer and more accessible to be inclusive of people for whom English is a second language and people with learning disabilities.

I dread to think how they might look now.

I figure if we go for the source and try to get the language guide to include women, then whenever a Trust breaks guidance, it will be much easier to complain and refer them back to the guidelines they are supposed to follow.

I was thinking about DofE and how the position on gender identity in schools is now clear and we can refer individual schools (and themselves) back the their guidance.

Considering women are usually only actually able get pregnant one or two days a month… are we only women on those two days?!

English isn’t my first language and I would agree that this has potential to be confusing. We have a word for man and woman in Swedish. Obviously I would expect to use the words in English that mean the same as in Swedish. I wouldn’t say birthing person in Swedish or potential birthing person in Swedish, and would not even think to say this in English. Again, we have a very high level of English fluency in Scandinavia, but this is not how one would think to speak when you speak English. At all.. Just say woman.

The words man and woman are in every language. I don’t understand why all of a sudden English is trying to make these additional complications.

7 years old Marshmallow would know the word woman, but have no idea what this word salad about birthing potential would even mean.

How do they know who to check for pregnancy then? Is the HCP going to assume people's gender, based purely on how they present? That's transphobic!!

7 years old Marshmallow would know the word woman, but have no idea what this word salad about birthing potential would even mean.

You are not alone

Anyway I am going to write an email to the trust to complain on the basis of:

• the incorrect use of language (sex/gender) in direct opposition to their style guide
• the unclear language excluding patients with English as a second language or low levels of literacy
• the use of ‘woman and girls’ would be sufficient given they have the rainbow flag section for Transmen. Any Transwomen accessing the service would (per NHS thinking) be covered by ‘women and girls’ and they can just say ‘no I’m not pregnant’ just like women who also aren’t pregnant or don’t have the potential to be.

No need for all this muck arsing about tying themselves in knots.

The words man and woman are in every language.

Only cos of colonialism though. You didn't have those words until you got colonialised.

As The Bewilderness posted on Twitter Replacing biological sex with gender identity beliefs is like replacing modern medicine with incantations. Believing it yourself is foolish but demanding that others share your beliefs is inexcusable.

If you believe in gender woo you probably don't believe in X-rays. Black & white is too binary.

Give me strength.

So the well-being of women (yes I’ve dared to use that word) is sidelined for ‘inclusivity’.

Well done OP for writing a letter

@toocold54

I'm infertile and have no potential....

In a round about way they are saying it’s not for you.
I find it more strange that they have given an age range than the wording of everything else.
Why not just say - if you think you might be pregnant….

I too have no childbearing potential due to infertility, however thanks to IVF I have been pregnant 3 times. If I was being a stubborn cow, which I often am, I would argue with them about whether that poster is actually inclusive of me, as it feels like I’m being excluded on the grounds of my infertility. Which might be literal violence, although I’m not sure.

What if I have a slacker of a uterus? One that failed in education, spent its time at school smoking behind the bike shed. Would it then lack potential?

"Honestly surprised it’s still called maternity ward not birthing ward."

Our local maternity hospital is now a hospital with a 'birth centre'...

'birth centre'

Is that the same a front hole?

You’re right! Their rules don’t even make sense. You can’t assume anything by someone’s appearance. So they wouldn’t not want to assume anything.. so they will ask a 50 years old man with a full beard who has a large beer belly if he’s pregnant? We can’t assume he’s not a woman right?

This is so ridiculous.. are we in a comedy sketch show?

@whatnow41

Hello OP

I don't usually @ people but this is really awful.

They say that people who could be pregnant etc may need to have further tests to see if they are pregnant.

The age starts at 12.

Just up there on a wall. 12. If could be pregnant. May do extra tests.

As if it's just totally normal. Standard. That a 12 yo might be pregnant and they'd proceed exactly the same as for a 40yo.

What the actual fuck are they thinking?

It implies that if they get a pregnant 12yo then there will be no questions. No concern. No alarm raised. No social services. Nothing.

I can't believe they're displaying that. I'm properly really angry.

The law for rape in this country is. Under 13. no excuses. No mitigation.

The NHS just casually put this sign up.

Because following some template or other for 'inclusion' is the 'right' thing to do. Did no one look at it and say. Hold on a sec. What are we saying here? Have none of the medical staff who have wandered past thought WTF and popped into the office to say. That sign is awful.

And for the patients. The girls. What do they take from that?

The girls who are being sexually abused. It would freak them out surely? And they would worry what was going to happen. What they would be asked. What the tests were.

I mean fucking hell.

OP please tell me which trust I will contact them on this. I'm just. I can't believe they've put that up.

And my kids both started their periods way before that age.

It's fucked up in all ways.

One of my son's has a pink baby band saved in his baby box from when he was born, they'd run out of blue ones. I just tell him he's really a girl. he won't be pleased.

@NecessaryScene

The words man and woman are in every language.

Only cos of colonialism though. You didn't have those words until you got colonialised.

What?

I think that poster is joking.

@spacegirl86

"Honestly surprised it’s still called maternity ward not birthing ward."

Our local maternity hospital is now a hospital with a 'birth centre'...

Birth centres have been around a good decade at least. Lewisham maternity services includes two birth centres along with a separate labour ward and postnatal ward.

The Rosie in Cambridge (at Addenbrooke’s hospital) is called birth centre as well.

At the time of writing, both websites use the words women and mothers, not persons of child bearing potential.

@NiceGerbil

I think that poster is joking.

Damn. I was really looking forward to being schooled.

@ShagMeRiggins,

“ The Rosie in Cambridge (at Addenbrooke’s hospital) is called birth centre as well.”

The Rosie Hospital includes a birth centre, but has other services, for example there’s a Gynaecology department too.

The bus stop is Rosie Maternity. Perhaps they haven’t caught up.

@irresistibleoverwhelm

FFS! Is this all being driven by the minuscule number of trans men that actually give birth, or is it just all about people feeling pleased with themselves for being “inclusive” and not wanting to offend the TRA lobby?

It’s so offensive!

I'd say its more likely to be driven by transwomen than transmen.... who would be offended by the use of the word woman to refer to something they as (their definition) women are biologically incapable of doing.

[quote SilverSilverStreet]@ShagMeRiggins,

“ The Rosie in Cambridge (at Addenbrooke’s hospital) is called birth centre as well.”

The Rosie Hospital includes a birth centre, but has other services, for example there’s a Gynaecology department too.

The bus stop is Rosie Maternity. Perhaps they haven’t caught up.[/quote]
You’re right, of course. What I’d meant to add but didn’t is that birth centres are part of maternity wards in hospitals.

And I’ll shut up because I’m derailing now.