Midwives hail ‘trans birthing’ lesson rethink

THE NHS has about-turned on transgender plans after a revolt by midwives.

NHS England had been trying since Dec 16 to recruit a group to run “trans and non-binary birthing people” training across 40 NHS maternity services, including lessons on trans-inclusive language and pronouns.

A tender document offered £100,000 of taxpayer funding and also sought online resources, information posters and “best practice examples of how to care for trans and non-binary birthing people”.

The scheme was underpinned by taxpayer-funded research by the LGBT Foundation, a charity that ran a session last year on “LGBTQ+ sex toy delights” and called for nephews and nieces to be replaced with the genderneutral term “niblings”.

Some 300 nurses, midwives and psychologists wrote to Lizzie Streeter, the NHS LGBT tsar, who is in charge of the plan, warning it had “no evidence base” and put maternity wards “at risk of ideological capture”.

Two days after the letter was sent on Jan 9, NHS England backtracked and told bidders that “the contract has been withdrawn early” while officials launch a review into its evidence base.

With Woman, the group of maternity staff that co-ordinated the letter, signed by 1,700 members of the public too, said it was a “watershed moment” for health staff rooting out trans ideology.

“This may be one of the first times a major programme based on flawed research and linked to gender activist organisations has been prevented in the UK public sector,” they said.

“It is a watershed moment and gives us great encouragement that ideologically driven schemes with no evidence base will have no place in NHS maternity services.”

The scheme, which was due to be rolled out this month, required a group

‘Schemes with no evidence base have no place in NHS maternity services’

with “a track record in trans awareness training” to deliver classes for midwives and nurses.

In their six-point letter, the health staff cited the closure of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust’s child gender clinic in London after criticism over activist influence, warning: “A scandal similar to Tavistock could be repeated in NHS maternity services due to poor research and the influence of advocacy organisations.”

David Bell, formerly staff governor at the Tavistock, said that he was “shocked at this repetition of ideology again trumping examination of the evidence”.