Maternity trans proposals could have harmed women

SCIENCE EDITOR

A TRANSGENDER maternity report commissioned by public health chiefs made “misleading” claims and spurious recommendations that could have harmed women, experts have warned.

Last year, the LGBT Foundation published research into the experiences of 121 trans and non-binary users of maternity services in England, claiming that 30 per cent received no care during pregnancy. It urged maternity services to use more inclusive language such as “chestfeeding” and suggested implementing “visible markers of inclusion such as posters, badges, including name badges with pronouns, and lanyards”.

NHS England initially announced plans to spend £100,000 on training based on the report’s recommendations, but withdrew the scheme following a petition by clinicians expressing concerns about its conclusions.

Researchers at the universities of Oxford, Coventry and the West of England Bristol, re-examined the report and found major flaws. Respondents had given birth over a 30-year period, with many not presenting as trans or non-binary during their pregnancy. They also found questions had been imprecise.

The LGBT Foundation used the 30 per cent claim to suggest that pregnant trans and non-binary people were

“being put at risk” but the authors said there was no data to support the claim.

But the experts warned that adopting inclusive language could be harmful for women and cautioned the NHS that the experiences of a “very small minority of service users” should not be used to inform policy for everyone.

Writing in the British Journal of Midwifery, they said: “What the authors recommend as ‘inclusive’ language for trans and non-binary maternity service users may, in fact, be detrimental to many other maternity service users.

“A population-level move from sexbased to gender-based referents may have a detrimental effect on clear communication, diminish accessibility of health communications and increase health inequalities for women with English as a second language, those with a learning disability, and those with low health literacy.”

The study found no evidence to support many of the recommendations, such as wearing inclusivity lanyards.

The report was commissioned by the Health and Wellbeing Alliance, a body jointly managed by the Department of Health, the UK Health Security Agency, NHS England and NHS Improvement.

The LGBT Foundation said it stood by the report. An NHS spokesman said: ”The scope of this work was limited and it did not impact NHS policy.”

The long neck of the law Police take a swan to the vet after it was found loose on Swannery Bridge, in Dorset.