No mention of 'girl' or 'female' on NHS poster about child pregnancy

[Dominoodles]

I've seen this photo on Facebook and had to share. This was seen in a doctor's surgery, explaining that even a girl as young as ten could be pregnant and what that means. It's a horrible subject but I get the need for it to be a discussion, given the state of things right now.

But there is nothing mentioned on here about girls, or women, or females. A 'person' of child bearing age is not clear to little girls. A ten year old girl suffering sexual abuse is not going to realise this is for her. A ten year old boy is not going to realise it isn't for him, because it doesn't actually say. The visuals on the poster even show what appears to be a man as well as women.

Not too mention kids who do suffer sexual abuse are not going to have had a comprehensive sex education, so they might not even understand what 'child bearing age' is without context.

Ten year olds are not going to see this as the offer of help it was intended to be, and by obfuscating who this is meant for, those girls could be missing out on necessary help. It even uses the kid friendly word tummy, but can't use the word girl.

Normally I'd see your point, and if it was a "if you think you might be pregnant, please tell someone so we can help you" type of poster, then 100% it should be more clear, but in this case I think it's a bit of a reach.

This poster (which is clearly from a radiography department not a GP) is to let the child and their parents/carers know that the question will be asked, presumably so no one get offended or thinks the Dr is suggesting the 10yo is sexually active. That conversation will still go ahead wether or not the girl has read the poster, so it doesn't rely on the girl knowing to speaking up. It doesn't actually matter if she doesn't realise it's intended to be about her, as that will be apparent when the radiographer asks her the question (with hopefully some safeguarding procedures being put in place if she says yes).

It also doesn't matter if a boy reads it and thinks it might be for him. If he tells the radiographer that he thinks he might be pregnant, they can explain that he isn't, and ask what made him think he could be, with safeguarding also required if the 10y boy claims to be sexually active.

Sorry to go against you on this one, but over reactions to things like this waters down the objections to the genuinely batshit NHS output (of which there are plenty)

but over reactions to things like this waters down the objections to the genuinely batshit NHS output (of which there are plenty)

I see your point, but I really think we can do more than one thing at a time. And we cannot tackle the massive problems in the NHS if we can't even manage to get the easy things right, such as clear, biologically (not ideologically) based language for a health service.

Which again begs the question why the NHS sees fit to ask 100% of the population whether they might be pregnant when it can only ever apply to approx 50%? The fact they do so while pretzeling themselves into never mentioning the words woman or girls in relation to potential pregnancy demonstrates their lack of critical thinking and a deep seated misogyny about women.
There's no way of explaining this that makes it OK. It's biologically inaccurate, disrespectful to women to pretend that pregnancy isn't a female issue, openly excludes some of the most marginalised people with English as a second language and yet again demonstrates the immense power of this ideology to bully professionals out of meeting the needs of the whole population while beclowning themselves by asking 70 year old men if they might be pregnant.

All because nobody ever says no to this sacred caste.

It's confusing for kids.

Imagine if you're a boy and you've regularly been asked if you're pregnant by nurses and doctors since the age of 10.

What's that going to do to your world view?

I’m think the names of men are meant to be the partners/fathers

"That conversation will still go ahead wether or not the boy has read the poster, so it doesn't rely on the boy knowing to speaking up. It doesn't actually matter if he doesn't realise it's intended to be about him,"

"It also doesn't matter if a boy reads it and thinks it might be for him. If he tells the radiographer that he thinks he might be pregnant, they can ask what made him think he could be, with safeguarding also required if the 10y boy claims to be sexually active."

I think you're making some assumptions. They won't necessarily say there's no chance he could be pregnant without investigating.

It's not a poster about child pregnancy it's a poster just explaining that you'll be asked if you are pregnant if you are having an x-ray and are between the ages of..., it isn't a poster for children suffering child abuse, it's a headsup that you will be asked. I agree that it misses the key words "women and girls", but you are missing the point of the poster. This wouldn't be in a GP surgery, it would be on the wall in radiology.

This raises a range of safeguarding issues. Apart from those raised by the 10 year old boy claiming he might be pregnant, here's an allegedly qualified and supposedly trustworthy NHS radiographer / adult initiating a conversation with a 10 year old boy about whether he might be pregnant? It's not age appropriate and it's untrue.

We would normally say that adults working in the NHS are trustworthy, qualified and have a child's best interests at heart when they're giving treatment.
What does an open untruth - one that young children know from an early age - that it's the mummy who gives birth - do to young children? They know it's a lie yet they've been told NHS staff are trustworthy. So why is this person asking something that's couldn't be true?

For a child perhaps embarking on a series of treatment that may be invasive, uncomfortable etc, to be able to trust the adults is essential.

Tbh, I'd hope that most NHS staff working with a seriously ill child would ignore these offensive questions. But imagine a child in hospital, maybe sometimes without a parent present 24/7, having to decide whether this man (or woman) who asks him about whether he's pregnant is lying about other things. And why is he so interested in this?

None of this is ever thought through.

Why?! Have they ever discovered a bloke who actually was pregnant? They’re supposed medical experts; do they actually expect to?
Stop the world, I want to get off…