Another hospital dehumanises women - ‘ birthing parents ‘

[Carriemac]

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nottinghamuniversityhospitalsnhstrust_nuh-is-one-of-the-uk-hospitals-involved-in-activity-7441816081041678337-ZEnZ?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAbRBqEBamPjlOVCIzBZDVdqVOXgG-5nEik

Honestly just so sick of this crap 😭

‘Important research into ‘families, birthing people and babies’ this is a Trust with terrible reputation for midwives and maternity services and they can’t even use the word ‘women’

Ugh. Absolutely horrible phrase. What are they thinking of?

They're thinking that they have to be inclusive of the miniscule percentage of women who identify as men, yet they are pregnant (the irony of a woman identifying as a man, then doing the most feminine thing possible, then getting upset that people call them a women is apparently lost on them) It seems this absolutely ridiculously tiny cohort of women are enough to have the entire language around motherhood and pregnancy changed for EVERYONE, in case a pregnant woman who identifies as a man feels isolated and alienated by 'non-inclusive' language. So naturally, as has been the way for many years now, the conclusion is to isolate and alienate all other women instead, but you know #bekind (but not to women) 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️

Indeed, why would a woman who identifies as a man and claims to be truly, inately male not female, want to get pregnant and give birth? Surely that's the last thing they'd want to do? And if they do want to get pregnant and give birth well then just admit it fgs, you're a woman!

This may be pedantic, but swapping out woman for parent isn’t dehumanising because both are humans.

It is de-sexing the language.

I am not in favour of swapping woman with parent, mind you, but saying it is dehumanising is not only incorrect but insensitive to groups that are the victims of dehumanising language.

Apologies you are correct I’m not sure what word I’m loooking for but it diminishes women not to name them . Maternal feelings and experiences are so important and this hospital currently has such a terrible reputation for its maternal care and yet can’t even bring itself to use the word women.

After tying themselves in knots saying ‘anyone born with a prostate’ they then clearly say ‘1 in 8 men’ so that’s fine then we can use that word just not women?

https://www.eastgenomics.nhs.uk/about-us/news-and-events/supporting-prostate-cancer-patients-in-the-east-midlands/

I am a midwife and I completely agree. I personally cannot say birthing person or chest feeding and always say woman. Some maternity professionals do get fully on board though as the video shows and training for example does always use birthing person but in my trust we are absolutely not pushed to use it personally.

In my many years as a midwife I have only cared for one person who identified as male. It was incredibly hard not to say she/woman etc and I do believe they made a complaint as people did obviously slip up unintentionally.

The world is honestly going mad.

I think it is dehumanising because they swapped 'women' for 'birthing people', reducing us to a bodily function.

Nottingham innit. They are totally captured. They have a gender clinic there and, long after Cass, they advertised a post stressing that the successful applicant would have to follow the WPATH guidance. I believe one of their professors is an ex WPATH president. I’m sure his wishes will have overruled any expressed by actual women.

First thing I did was look to see where this was - Brighton? Bristol? No, Nottingham. I'm not surprised. I know a midwife who worked at the Queen's Medical Centre and left because it was so dangerous.

Dehumanising language? I think so, because it dehumanises women by choosing this language. The motive is to make mothers & fathers indistinguishable, which is a move that's been going on for some time now & not only in woke cities. I firmly believe we have different roles in our children's lives.

But I agree, bloody awful language.

Gah, this is so disgusting, to complain against the trust because she was referred to as 'she' when being pregnant and giving birth 🤦🏻‍♀️ some of the world has gone mad, the rest of us are just rolling our eyes at the ridiculous clowns.

I wish I was brave enough to comment on their LinkedIn post

Given that maternity care in Nottingham hospitals has been so appalling they've been subject to repeated enquiries, you'd have hoped that they'd stop displaying their anti women rhetoric so publicly and focus on their one task - keeping women and babies safe and alive.

But no - they're so much in the grip of these toxic mysoginistic beliefs that they keep on beclowning themselves.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyd2m7j312o

Can I ask, has your trust had an open conversation with you and your colleagues about the language you use to refer to patients or is it more of an absence of pushing the language/a supportive manager?

Nottingham is currently the subject of a major investigation into its maternity care involving 2,500 families.

Has anyone else noticed how often Nottingham comes up in these stories, though? The police and local authority seem to be particularly captured. I wonder sometimes if the city has been deliberately targeted by trans activists, though perhaps that's fanciful.

I think it's seen as a bit of a safe haven for trans people because the council painted a rainbow crossing on a road in the trendy part of town. Oh, and of course Nadia Witless is a local MP.

It's no wonder so many good midwives are leaving the NHS.

I think it's dehumanising despite a "person" being human. Just because other terms might be more dehumanising, it doesn't mean this term is not.

As PP said, the "birthing" aspect reduces the mother to a bodily function. This is problematic in a hospital environment where patients already often feel somewhat dehumanised, as if they are a body on a conveyor belt of processes over which they have little agency. Women and black people in particular face greater risk of experiencing medical negligence, so this term works against them.

The other aspect of the term which is dehumanising is the removal of the word "mother". We live in a patriarchal world where most families take the male surname and most men earn more than their female partners. A world where the kind of care that is predominantly done by women is utterly devalued.

One small truth in the midst of this is the fact that if you are a mother, when you were a baby growing inside your own mother, the eggs that became your future children also grew there.

I find that a beautiful thought. All of us connected to our grandmothers like this, stretching back through time. A small female truth that isn't declared with a name and can't be influenced by money or violence. What did those mothers of the past have to endure to bring the lives into this world that eventually became your life?

It will go on being true, of course, but it is a truth that gets obscured when the word "mother" is removed.

All of us connected to our grandmothers like this, stretching back through time. A small female truth that isn't declared with a name and can't be influenced by money or violence. What did those mothers of the past have to endure to bring the lives into this world that eventually became your life?

That's such a profound way of putting it @InconvenientlyMaterial it brought tears to my eyes.
The female connection 💜

It’s just not a thing. It has never been mentioned in either direction, and rightly so. In a profession where we literally deal with biggest thing a female body can do, they’ll have a job getting me to say birthing people. I would obviously do my best if caring for somebody who identifies as male, but as I found, it’s very hard to override nature

Reducing us to our reproductive function strips away the dignity of being a woman. Let’s face it, we give so much of ourselves to others and when we are pregnant or raising little children we don’t often have much dignity. Let us have the title ‘woman’ which is rich in meaning and carries all of the literary and historical contexts to our sex. Don’t just reduce us to our reproductive organs.

Very well put. I always like to remind people of Dr Suzanne Forbes-Vierling's talk on the racist origins of gender-neutral language:

But only one parent gives birth and that is always the female parent.