Trans friendly NHS Trust introduces chestfeeding

As part of new trans-friendly policy at an NHS trust, midwives have been told to stop using terms such as "breastfeeding" and "breast milk".

 

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust is the first in the country to formally implement a gender-inclusive language policy. Its maternity services department will now be known as "perinatal services".

 

Staff have been told to avoid using the word "mothers" on its own and have been given a list of alternative terms to use when addressing patients, including "mothers or birthing parents", "breast or chestfeeding" and "maternal or parental".

 

Instead of saying "breast milk", they can choose from "human milk" or "breast or chest milk" or "milk from the feeding mother or parent". Staff will be asked to use language which reflects people's "own identities and preferences" when talking to patients.

 

The word "woman" is also to be replaced with the phrase "woman or person", and the term "father" with "parent or co-parent" or "second biological parent", depending on the circumstances. The changes will be implemented on the trust's website, leaflets, letters and emails.

 

In a policy document, the hospital trust said staff should not discontinue using the word "woman" or other terms describing motherhood, but that they should start adding in the word "people'' and use other more inclusive language.

 

It said: "Gender identity can be a source of oppression and health inequality. We are consciously using the words 'women' and 'people' together to make it clear that we are committed to working on addressing health inequalities for all those who use our services. As midwives and birth workers, we focus on improving access and health outcomes for marginalised and disadvantaged groups. Women are frequently disadvantaged in healthcare, as are trans and non-binary people."

 

Of the adult population in Britain, around 1% identify as transgender or non-binary, but the trans population in Brighton and Hove is thought to be larger. Although no official figures exist on the trans community, research has shown nearly 10 per cent of the population of Brighton and Hove identify as LGBTQ+, compared with around 2.2 per cent of the general UK population.

 

There has been fierce debate around attempts to reduce the use of the word "woman" in discussion around subjects including pregnancy and childbirth, provoking ire from some feminists. JK Rowling, the author, was "cancelled" last year after she questioned a decision to use the term "people who menstruate" in a headline.

 

 

 

Sheffield Employment Solicitors