NZ Midwifery Council proposes dropping The Words 'Mother' And 'Woman'

[NZKateS]

I haven’t seen a thread in this but apologies if I have missed it.

The Midwifery Council of NZ is updating its Midwifery Scope of Practice guidance for midwives to entirely remove the words 'mother' and 'woman'. The terms Māori equivalent of ‘wahine’ and ‘māmā’ are also absent…instead they propose to become ‘whānau centric’ which is the Maori term for family/extended family.

This completely erases women from their practising guidelines. Does pain management become a ‘family issue’, does a violent, threatening partner as a member of the whanau have a say in the treatment of the pregnant woman?

Essentially they appear to be using Māori language as a way to to obscure the fact changes they wish to make are to accommodate gender policy pronouncements and not improve service performance.

if you would like to comment on the updated revised Scope of Practice statement, please email [email protected] By November 21.

This press release by Dr Sarah Donovan a Health Sociologist and Adjunct Fellow in the School of Social and Cultural Studies at the University of Wellington provides quite a good outline of the issues.
www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE2211/S00011/nz-midwifery-council-drops-the-words-mother-and-woman.htm

instead they propose to become ‘whānau centric’ which is the Maori term for family/extended family.

what the fuck. So are the family going to get input on a woman’s pain relief choices during childbirth? Are they going back to the days when the father chose whether they’d save the mother’s life or the baby’s? Can a woman still decide who gets to be in the room when she gives birth?

that is the most sinister “woke” language mangling I have ever encountered.

This is just so sad... they are taking something from women and don't even care. And I hate this whole 'updating' shit, trying to act like it's an improvement - no it isn't, it's a fucking travesty!
Yes we know, not all women are mothers (I'm not), but all mothers are women and it's so important to acknowledge that in language and policy.

I've heard that Jacinda's ratings are really bad lately, and I hope she is ousted soon - but it seems the train has left the station and this crap will keep happening without her.

Is their any evidence that this approach produces better outcomes for women and babies? Have they done a pilot and looked at any feedback from women? I bet I know the answer to those questions before I check...

bumping for those who wish to give feedback on this terrible proposal by the NZ Midwifery to drop the words ‘women’ and ‘mother’ [email protected]

By November 21.

Completely unsurprisingly @RoseslnTheHospital the answer will be no…

the situation feels well and truly lost in NZ @Farmageddon it’s both rage inducing and utterly heartbreaking.

That seems to be exactly what they are proposing @TastefulRainbowUnicorn …Uncoupling women from female biology. Desexing the language of pregnancy birth, and motherhood - no matter how dangerous that makes it for women - so men don’t feel excluded.

The 'Be Kind' thing has become so detached from reality. The reply here is from a sitting Labour MP.

*NZ Labour

That's interesting.

Here in Canada there has been a kind of forced teaming with indigenous and lgbtq+ issues. So for example the last big national celebration relating to indigenous culture was also focused on lgbtq+.

The fact is however that indigenous people have quite a variety of viewpoints on issues relating to homosexuality, queerness, and trans related topics. There is a tendency for some to assume that because of the "two-spirit_ idea that all First Nations peoples were accepting of homosexuality and different gender categories - that's simply not true. On a continent larger than Europe with many different peoples, there were all kinds of different cultures. And there were many individuals who felt like they were excluded from that celebration because they didn't agree with that political element, and many are Catholic, etc. Many members of First Nations are pretty socially conservative.

Now, whatever discussions these communities are having about that topic, you have to wonder, why were these two groups conflated as if they included all the same people?

It seems like something of an intersectionality fail.

You really have to wonder what these people are thinking.

I saw this nonsense the other day. New Zealand is becoming very, er..., "progressive". whyevolutionistrue.com/2022/11/10/new-zealand-midwives-organization-deep-sixes-words-like-mother-and-woman/

It seems like something of an intersectionality fail.

A very intentional fail, I’m sure. For the genderist agenda to succeed, ‘women’ must be the privileged group. This is obviously a difficult argument, so it makes sense to insist that it is overwhelmingly white women who profess to have concerns - all other women have much more in common with, and are therefore the natural allies of, trans people.

The argument about third genders is an odd one. Where they exist, these genders seem to be every bit as fixed as the old man-woman gender roles. Instead of two, you have three. Still no answer for anyone who feels constricted by the man-woman-other roles. Still generally no easy transition between man and woman (you have to be something else instead). Certainly not 100+ genders. And let’s not get into how some of these genders are clearly ways of ‘dealing’ with homosexuality. I’m not sure why they are being held up as enlightened ways of dealing with gender at all.

Sarah pallet should be removed from her seat immediately. If you are that daft you should not be representing anyone else.

This is so odd isn't it. So we can guess the real reason. But what is the given reason? What do they say to argue for this change? How will it help indigenous mothers and babies or anyone? What's the stated hoped for outcome?

I've seen it's part of a much broader thing in health care to do with indigenous ways of knowing. Not just midwifery. But I wonder if any other areas of medicine are dropping the main words to name the people they provide a service to.

im shocked the MP wasn't' a former midspouse and midspousery

are we allowed to still say husband and wife?

It never ceases to baffle me how complicit some women are being in their own erasure. Why the fuck are they so damn quick to acquiesce and roll over to this male centered bullshit?

The rush to paint us out of existence is depressing, and the fact that an organisation FOR WOMEN AND ONLY POSSIBLY EVER FOR WOMEN is one to take part in it is vomit inducing.

FFS, and she's so completely confident!! I wish someone would ask her to explain herself....it's easy to bluff a few lines, but how can she defend this with actual reality and not fluffy nonsense?
I'm not on Twitter so can't look it up, did anyone challenge her?

I know, it's so depressing!

WOMEN carry and give birth to babies. Not men. Yes some of these women aren’t mothers because they have been a surrogate or put their baby up for adoption. But the majority of women who give birth become MOTHERS.

@Farmageddon There were a lot of critical replies, but some supportive ones too, from NZ-based twitter accounts from what I could see.