Referring to women as “birth-givers” and replacing the word “mothers” with “pregnant people” in research papers could potentially put women’s health at risk and jeopardise decades of work to improve gender bias in medical literature, a study has found.
Women’s health researchers from across the world have said in a paper to be published this week that removing references to the sex of mothers in research in a bid to be more inclusive of transgender people can have “unintended consequences that have serious implications”.
It comes after Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust were told last year to formally implement a gender-inclusive language policy for maternity services, including replacing the term “breastmilk” with “human milk” and using “chestfeeding” instead of “breastfeeding” as part of an effort to be more trans-friendly.
The authors of the new paper, due to be published in the journal Frontiers in Global Women’s Health, said that replacing words such as “breastfeeding” with terms such as “lactating parents” risks “reducing protection of the mother-infant [bond]” and “disembodying and undermining breastfeeding”.
The paper, first reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, states: “Desexing the language of female reproduction has been done with a view to being sensitive to individual needs and beneficial, kind and inclusive. Yet, this kindness has delivered unintended consequences that have serious implications for women and children.”
Jenny Gamble, a professor at Coventry University and one of ten authors on the paper, said the researchers had acknowledged that words are changing to ensure inclusion but that sex-based language is “important due to sex-based oppression”.
“Confusing the idea of gender identity and the reality of sex risks adverse health consequences and deeper and more insidious discrimination against women,” she said. “Sex, gender, and gender identity are not synonymous but are being treated as if they are.”
“Pregnancy, birth and early motherhood are fundamentally sexed issues, not gendered. Pregnant and birthing women and new mothers and their infants have unique vulnerabilities and also require protection.”
The researchers, from institutions including Harvard Medical School, said that they “fully endorse the importance of being inclusive and respectful”, adding that the use of some desexed words is appropriate, particularly when dealing one-to-one with patients who prefer it.
“For those who are pregnant, birthing, and breastfeeding but who do not identify as women, the individual’s preferred terminology for themselves and their body parts should be used wherever possible,” the paper states.
The paper comes after the Royal College of Midwives issued an apology in December for removing the words “women” and “mother” and replacing them with “post-natal people”.
The researchers also argued that using alternative terms for women and mothers is “mechanistic” and “dehumanising” because it often involves referencing just a body part or physiological process.
> Referring to women as “birth-givers”
Whts wrong with the good old fashioned term ‘parental unit’? it’s Health and Saftey gone mad!
How? The article spans 12 paragraphs but not once does it suggest how it could cause harm or a regression in equality, just that it does.
Source: trust me bro.
> including replacing the term “breastmilk” with “human milk”
Yeah, I’m not sure they thought that one through.
Has any transgender person ever asked to be referred to as a post-natal person?
I feel stupid after reading this. It suggests something but doesn’t explain how it puts them at risk and I can’t see how unless rustled jimmies is now a dangerous situation.
6 comments
Referring to women as “birth-givers” and replacing the word “mothers” with “pregnant people” in research papers could potentially put women’s health at risk and jeopardise decades of work to improve gender bias in medical literature, a study has found.
Women’s health researchers from across the world have said in a paper to be published this week that removing references to the sex of mothers in research in a bid to be more inclusive of transgender people can have “unintended consequences that have serious implications”.
It comes after Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust were told last year to formally implement a gender-inclusive language policy for maternity services, including replacing the term “breastmilk” with “human milk” and using “chestfeeding” instead of “breastfeeding” as part of an effort to be more trans-friendly.
The authors of the new paper, due to be published in the journal Frontiers in Global Women’s Health, said that replacing words such as “breastfeeding” with terms such as “lactating parents” risks “reducing protection of the mother-infant [bond]” and “disembodying and undermining breastfeeding”.
The paper, first reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, states: “Desexing the language of female reproduction has been done with a view to being sensitive to individual needs and beneficial, kind and inclusive. Yet, this kindness has delivered unintended consequences that have serious implications for women and children.”
Jenny Gamble, a professor at Coventry University and one of ten authors on the paper, said the researchers had acknowledged that words are changing to ensure inclusion but that sex-based language is “important due to sex-based oppression”.
“Confusing the idea of gender identity and the reality of sex risks adverse health consequences and deeper and more insidious discrimination against women,” she said. “Sex, gender, and gender identity are not synonymous but are being treated as if they are.”
“Pregnancy, birth and early motherhood are fundamentally sexed issues, not gendered. Pregnant and birthing women and new mothers and their infants have unique vulnerabilities and also require protection.”
The researchers, from institutions including Harvard Medical School, said that they “fully endorse the importance of being inclusive and respectful”, adding that the use of some desexed words is appropriate, particularly when dealing one-to-one with patients who prefer it.
“For those who are pregnant, birthing, and breastfeeding but who do not identify as women, the individual’s preferred terminology for themselves and their body parts should be used wherever possible,” the paper states.
The paper comes after the Royal College of Midwives issued an apology in December for removing the words “women” and “mother” and replacing them with “post-natal people”.
The researchers also argued that using alternative terms for women and mothers is “mechanistic” and “dehumanising” because it often involves referencing just a body part or physiological process.
> Referring to women as “birth-givers”
Whts wrong with the good old fashioned term ‘parental unit’? it’s Health and Saftey gone mad!
How? The article spans 12 paragraphs but not once does it suggest how it could cause harm or a regression in equality, just that it does.
Source: trust me bro.
> including replacing the term “breastmilk” with “human milk”
Yeah, I’m not sure they thought that one through.
Has any transgender person ever asked to be referred to as a post-natal person?
I feel stupid after reading this. It suggests something but doesn’t explain how it puts them at risk and I can’t see how unless rustled jimmies is now a dangerous situation.