Doncaster MP calls NHS 'cowardly' for calling pregnant women "birthing people"

NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board shared details of "a new role for maternity and neonatal independent senior advocates to support women, birthing people and families to help ensure the voices of women, birthing people and families are listened to.”

Birthing people is a gender-neutral term used when referring to transgender patients and to avoid misgendering and is used within widely within the NHS rather than using the term women.

But Don Valley MP Mr Fletcher, who has frequently spoken out against the transgender community and once described being trans as “nothing more than a phase” has attacked the NHS board over the term.

Posting online he wrote: “Truth matters, particularly in health care.

“This is a sensitive subject being discussed.

“However it is not acceptable for NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board to refer to women as 'birthing people'.

“Sex matters, especially in healthcare.

“It is not responsible or safe for the NHS to collude in the idea that any of us can change sex.

“Stop being cowardly. Start respecting women, safeguarding, science, truth.”

A spokesman for the Board said: “Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocates help ensure the voices of women, birthing people and families are listened to, heard, and acted upon by their maternity and neonatal care providers when they have experienced an adverse outcome during their maternity and neonatal care.

"This may have been a recent experience or may have happened some time ago.”

An adverse outcome is a serious incident or an outcome that has required or may require further formal investigation such as:

• A baby died before or during labour, after more than 24 weeks of pregnancy

• A baby died within 28 days of being born

• The person giving birth died

• The person who gave birth had an unplanned hysterectomy (their womb was removed) within six weeks of baby’s birth

• The person who gave birth was cared for in the High Dependency Unit or Intensive Care Unit and they did not expect this to happen

• The baby was diagnosed with a brain injury, or a brain injury was suspected.

“Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocates can support women, birthing people, and families by providing advocacy, helping them understand the maternity and neonatal healthcare system, attending follow up meetings where concerns about maternity or neonatal care are being discussed, and supporting them through investigation and complaints processes.”

Abbey Harris is the Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate for South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw. There are around 16,000 births per year in the area covered by the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

“While adverse outcomes in maternity care, such as brain injury or death for a mother or child, are very rare, it is vital that families are supported through these particularly difficult times, and that they are listened to and heard by their maternity and neonatal care providers.

“This new pilot led by NHS England will provide an advocate who can help families navigate the processes and signpost them to the best support available, and we are pleased to be one of the first areas in the country to have this important bespoke role in our community.”

If you would like support from a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw, you do not need to be sure if there were mistakes or negligence in the mother or baby’s care to ask for support. There is no charge for any support given, and interpreters can be made available if you need one.

You can contact a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate by calling, texting or emailing them, or you can complete a referral form on the MNISA webpage. You can also ask a member of staff from your hospital Trust, GP or Integrated Care Board to get the Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate to contact you. For more information, visit: https://southyorkshire.icb.nhs.uk/MNISA