LGBT foundation report into trans experiences of maternity services found to be flawed

[VeloVixen]

So in 2022 the LGBT foundation published a report into the experience of trans and non binary maternity service users which found they had poorer outcomes than non trans service users. Their report made a list of recommendations to the nhs.

Ive just been reading an article today in the British Journal of Midwiifery. (Webb et al. 2023. Trans and non binary experiences of maternity services: cautioning against acting without evidence)

This article has taken a detailed look at the original one and found the original study to be one sided, uncritical framing, lack of conceptual clarity. Lack of thorough engagement with literature. Lack of methodological rigour, poor sampling strategy and survey design which leads to the reports findings being invalid and unreliable.

lack of reliability due to imprecise questions, responses difficult to interpret. Misleading claims in the report due to the poor survey methodology and biased interpretation of responses.

most damming is the claim that the report includes recommendations not related to the (flawed) findings. Eg recommending that staff wearing pronoun badges and lanyards would make trans service users feel welcome when this wasn’t even touched upon in the survey.

Unbelievably for organisation which really should be able to interpret and critically analyse such reports the NHS has announced £100,000 of expenditure on the basis of the report’s recommendations. What a waste of taxpayer money! And these recommendations are being implemented without an assessment of how they may affect other service users (ie women).

I can’t link to the BJM article unfortunately as you need a subscription but it’s 7 pages long and very thorough.

Interesting that this review even got published - I don’t think it would have been a couple of years ago.

I reckon most midwives know what a woman is and are generally not afraid to say what they think 😁👍

The only thing the staff need to consider is - ‘that baby is coming out there!’ The rest of fluff.

Does it address any of the actual health issues that pregnant women who’ve taken testosterone or had their breasts cut off may have to deal with?

I imagine there might be a lot of trans-specific health concerns about pregnancy.

But those issues only affect women, regardless of their identity, so presumably the alphabet lobby group has ignored them in order to focus on creating maximal language confusion, with the end goal of appropriating women’s health resources for men.

found the original study to be one sided, uncritical framing, lack of conceptual clarity. Lack of thorough engagement with literature. Lack of methodological rigour, poor sampling strategy and survey design...

How very .... unexpected. (Notices a pile of bear-poo in the woods.)

'found the original study to be one sided, uncritical framing, lack of conceptual clarity'

Gosh. Wait while I work up to a surprised face.

Linky.

https://www.britishjournalofmidwifery.com/content/clinical-practice/trans-and-non-binary-experiences-of-maternity-services-cautioning-against-acting-without-evidence

Still working on that surprised face. I think it needs more eyebrow.

Sigh.

'Whole lot of political ideology, mess of word salad with some flailing around trying to make some case for doing the political ideology, absolutely no meeting of basic required standards, absolute failure to be aware of or consider impact on anyone else, huge amount of tax payer money promptly handed over'.

So very, very bored with this. But good it's being spelled out publicly now. This has to be stopped. Or I want my taxes back and bloody Stonewall can fund the NHS. And police. And Education. And the civil bloody service.

Good question. From the article:

"While the report defines the terms ‘trans’ and ‘non-binary’ in its glossary, not all those who gave a gender identity identified themselves by either of these terms. Respondents identified variously as man, woman, non-binary, agender, gender queer, genderfluid, bigender, transmasculine, demi-boy and ‘in another way’. Most of these terms are not defined in the report, and all appear to be included in the analysis as representative of trans and non-binary experiences (including those identifying as ‘woman’).

None of the terms appear to relate to whether people have undergone physical procedures in relation to gender reassignment. The needs of medically transitioned maternity service users are likely to be different from other trans and non-binary service users, but are mentioned only briefly in the ITEMS report. For example, elective double mastectomy can impact the ability to produce breast milk (Gribble et al, 2023), and long-term testosterone can cause vaginal and uterine atrophy (Grynberg et al, 2010), which can impact birth and postnatal health (Indig et al, 2023). Hoffkling et al (2017) found that previous medical interventions made a difference to the needs of trans maternity service users, so failure to ask respondents about their history of physical transition may mask important information relevant to the needs of trans and non-binary maternity service users. Lack of clarity about the target population of the study means that there is no way to identify who precisely may require particular types of care."

(My highlights) So I think the short answer is "no".

Bigender.

That's not someone with a 'big end', is it?

I am sorry, the whole thing is just SO STUPID!
If you require maternity care there can be no Shadow of a doubt that you are in fact a woman.

I mean, come on 🤯

But yes, no surprise such a super-biased Report was found to be flawed. And very pleased that can now be published and talked about. So well done for shining a light on the lunacy, it is certainly about time.

Arf. That’s me!

I’m more baffled at the basis of the study itself: “T and NB people using maternity services”. So…just women, then? I imagine midwives are too busy with paperwork and delivering babies to focus very much on their female patients’ “identity”. They’re concerned with delivering a healthy baby and keeping the mother healthy. That’s it.

Agree wholeheartedly with this. It’s beyond stupid.

And yet, just recently student midwives were being trained how to insert a catheter in men (with a penis) in labour. https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20220429/281805697497530

So a report of the same standard as pretty much every other LGBTQ+ report.

Apparently that was a total misrepresentation of what was spoken about in the session.

An important report that demonstrates how those pushing this ideology brazenly work against the interests of patient safety. And even worse, how institutions like the NHS have allowed their integrity to be compromised by pandering to such dangerous nonsense. While of course ignoring the elephant in the room - namely the unsafe state of so many maternity units for women and babies.

I recently looked for studies that purported to represent the effect of late-transitioning mtf on their family dynamics. The findings in the one study I found in summary was that there was no negative impact. When I dug down - all respondents (approx 20 families of both mtf and ftm) were sourced via the Stonewall and GenderedIntelligence social media pages. This statement is replicated in many sector guidance eg, Barnardos literature (which confidently states it but doesn't even bother to cite any research so unsure if this is just a blind assumption on their part). It doesn't take a genius to realise that this is a biased sample of people who are both proactively engaging with these particular social media groups and responded when they appealed for volunteers to further the cause. Its not to say that they weren't honest in their responses, just that it is dangerous to solely source respondents in such a manner and present the results as fact for all.

Yes. I’m shocked*, shocked I tell you.

*not actually remotely shocked.

At a time when public services are fighting for every single pound, the NBT (non binary trans) rinsing of colossal amounts of cash makes me want to cry.

When I gave birth, I felt I was treated like an actual animal more than anything else.

Maternity services are shocking for everyone.

The study is still on the LGBT foundation website. I read it the other day. It includes interviews with 4 NB persons (I think.....I mean, they were all women), I think most if not all were not "out" when they gave birth. One person had such terrible care she lost 12 litres of blood during her birth, twice the amount a regular pregnant female has in their entire body. Astonishing.

That is possible, I’ve known someone lose 30 litres. We keep pushing new units of blood in one end as fast as it’s coming out the other. A woman can lose about 700mls a minute with a decent pph.

Ah ok, thank you for clarifying!