Gender neutral language in pregnancy care

[QuirkyJadeSwan]

So I’m currently pregnant with my first and have been kind of low key annoyed with how common discussions around pregnancy and related topics remove to term woman or female (I.e birthing people). I started getting bugged by this during my trying to conceive phase and now it bugs me even more. I know it’s kind of a minor thing in the grand scheme of things but I needed to vent. Seriously going through TTC & pregnancy has made me about 10x more aware of how different physically women are.

How far along are you? Have you received much antenatal care yet? I’ve found that although blogs/podcasts/social media/HR policies may refer to pregnant people, the NHS and healthcare professionals all know that only women get pregnant. Never in my interactions with actual HCPs have they used weird gender neutral language. Also you’ll find that as soon as you start having discussions about whether the baby is a boy or a girl, everyone is very clear that sex is biological and you can work it out from looking at genitalia!! I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how unwoke it’s all been.

Im 18 weeks. I’ve had a couple of appointments already and my provider has actually been pretty good. It’s just all the online guides and Reddit forums/threads that do it mostly.

YANBU

I’m also pregnant; and I am far more concerned with the poor standard of maternity care than what words are used. Made worse by having had a horrific experience last year trying to get medical attention whilst having a traumatic miscarriage. Honestly; focus your attention and concern on what matters. I couldn’t care less what word someone uses, when I was bleeding out in a&e.

Perhaps if the NHS wasted less money on relaunching programmes and initiatives, and on redesigning their websites and reading materials, the care in A&E would be better.

That stuff doesn’t come cheap. It’s a lot more than a nurse’s salary. And there are many people working on these diversity and inclusion projects in the NHS.

I’m a health professional who’s GC and have really mixed feelings about gender neutral language in healthcare.
On a personal level I find it abominable, an affront to womanhood and the status of “mother”.

On a professional level, I can at least appreciate the intent behind it- it’s important to try and reach as many people as you can, and (I assume) this is an attempt to encourage trans pregnant people to access pre- and post- natal healthcare. I don’t have any problem with words like “-and pregnant people” being added to documents if it achieves that end, but I do have a big problem with the words “woman” and “mother” being removed.

Do you not understand that some women have low literacy levels or English as a second language (or not at all) and that clear communication and information is one of the things that keeps them safe during pregnancy? There are far more of these women in the UK than pregnant transmen. Is their safety not equally important?

Get off reddit then

Yes, I find this really troubling as a whole about GN language. It’s so isolating to some of our most vulnerable patients. You don’t attend cervical screening if you don’t realise you have a cervix.

Pregnant person here. I’m very happy for that language to be used. It’s clear, direct, and factual, and in no way confusing or alienating. Claiming otherwise, in service of a political point, feels disingenuous.

Pregnant person here. I’m very happy for that language to be used. It’s clear, direct, and factual, and in no way confusing or alienating.

That's your opinion, other pregnant women feel differently. Guess how I know what sex you are.

Sorry meant to quote.

So how many other pregnant people are men?

Do other male people who aren't getting pregnant need help?

It isn't clear and direct at all. It's also completely in service to a political point - that "woman" is an offensive word.

I support the pp above that the phrasing would be better as "women and pregnant people" - only to ensure that trans-identified women will access the healthcare their babies need.

This will probably get deleted but I'm tempted to say that pregnant women who still believe they're men as they literally doing the most womanly, not male thing possible can do one.

Their idiotic selfishness makes other women, of whom there are millions more, less safe.

The whole thing is laughable.

The fact that any professional organisation indulges in this claptrap makes them less of an authority in my opinion.

Language matters - FACTUAL language matters. Especially in healthcare.

Newsflash: transmen know full well they are women. Expecting 'inclusive' language (which in practice often excludes non native English speakers and those with learning disabilities) is nothing short of narcissism. Eyerolling to the heavens here.

I’d be more than a bit annoyed.

No one is saying there’s anything wrong with the word "woman." Using "people" is simply inclusive of women, as well as those pregnant individuals who identify differently. We’re all people first and foremost.

Why do women have to accommodate a tiny minority who reject their sex?

Reading the word "women" and the word "people" requires a similar level of literacy in English. "People" is not an obscure word.

I find that level of open transphobia quite shocking.

But also, how?

I urge you to challenge this nonsense every single time.

Women's rights are being set back horribly by all this TWAW nonsense.

Women are women.
Men are men.
Transwomen are transwomen (and have no right to women's single sex spaces and services.

How are you being asked to accommodate anyone? You’re free to call yourself whatever you like. You just don’t get to object when others refer to you as a person—unless you identify as something other than human?

The Re: Birth project by the RCM found that for many women, language was important. Terms like trial of labour, incompetent cervix, lack of maternal effort and so on are ones that many women find alienating and upsetting. It's no doubt true that being told you have an incompetent cervix when you've lost a baby isn't the worst part of the experience, but it doesn't help.

Many of us find terms like "birthing people" reductive. We are not just people who give birth, we are women and we are mothers, and we also give birth. The idea that you can have "women and birthing people" is nonsensical, because it suggests that women aren't included in the category of birthing people (they are) and birthing people aren't included in the category of women (they are).

Don't be silly.

I'm glad you're shocked. Maybe you'll start to think.

I'm shocked that anyone working in healthcare thinks that it's ok to pretend pregnant women aren't women, for the benefit of a tiny minority of a tiny minority of a tiny minority.

All women need to understand the realities of their own health clearly. Even trans identified women.

I don't believe that any human being can change sex and trans-identified women getting pregnant proves me right.