Are they ‘postnatal people’?
SOME weeks, it’s not easy to come up with ideas to fill this page. Conversely, there are other weeks (like this one) when I’m spoiled for choice. I could describe my reaction to the shock news that Little Mix will be ‘taking a break’ from each other next summer ‘to pursue solo projects’, while assuring their fans that they aren’t ‘splitting up for good’.
But the fact is, I wouldn’t recognise a member of Little Mix if she walked up to me and bit me on the knee; I couldn’t name any of their songs, let alone hum or whistle one; and as their contribution to British popular culture is hardly of Beatle-type importance, the news didn’t ‘shock’ me . . . or indeed many people over 14.
So, you’ll understand why I won’t mention it.
Instead, I’ll tell you that The Royal College of Midwives was forced to apologise after referring to mothers as ‘postnatal people’.
To clear up any possible confusion, the ‘Postnatal People’ they refer to are women who have recently given birth and become mothers.
Before they retracted it, the RCM’S guidance was . . . “postnatal people in hospital should have easy access to the call bell system, be shown how to work it and ensure it is working.”
Milli Hill, author of the book Give Birth Like A Feminist noticed that the RCM safe sleep guide doesn’t once mention women or mothers, instead referring to them as ‘Postnatal people’.
The RCM’S reaction when taken to task over their use of such a strangely neutral description was “We are committed to ensure that women are never excluded from the narrative around pregnancy and birth. It was a huge oversight”.
That’s not quite the case though, is it?
An ‘oversight’ is an unintentional failure to notice something.
Whereas someone at the RCM deliberately decided to delete the words ‘women’ and ’mothers’ and replace it with ‘postnatal people’.
For those of you who may think the news that Little Mix are to ‘take a break’ is a more important story, imagine the reaction if the Royal College Of Undertakers, should one exist, referred to their deceased customers as . . . ‘post breathing people’!