Birthing People - inclusive or offensive?

Well as far as I can see birthing person covers all the possibilities in two words.
That person may not become the mother because the child may be adopted and the adopive parent may prefer to use that title. That person may be acting as a surrogate and the child will have no genetic or perhaps a complicated genetic link to the birthing person who has no intention of being the child's mother, That person may be a trans man who does not want to be called mother.
To sum all that up in two words seems pretty clever to me. The world is neither as simple nor as straight forward as some seem to imagine.

that is fine for the person who would rather be called a birthing person than a mother. Those who would rather be called a mother are concerned that they will end up in the position that the "birthing person" was in before this move to give them the name they want.

The facts are that the staff in "birthing units" (as they could be referred to by those who find "maternity" too motherly a term) now have an "official" term available in their guidelines to use on the non-mothers giving birth. There is no regulation that says EVERYONE who gives birth must be called a "birthing person"

Are you sure Elegran?
If it's not a compulsory term yet there will soon be demands that it should be.

(The OP was about America - who knows what they're up to.)

The word 'mother' like so many words has layered meanings. It means the person who physically gives birth to a child as well as any biologically or putatively female person who brings that child up or acts like the understanding of that word means to a child. What the child or the person in the role of mother calls themselves or each other is entirely up to them.

Regardless of gender everyone is clear what a mother or father's role is. Complicated word phrases and explaanations only obfusc forms and make them difficult to read and understand and I think are part of a deep fascist plot to push us towards the world shown on Orwell's novel. 1984.

If there was a poll in the country the vast majority of people would vote for talking about mothers, fathers, maternity, breats feeding and so on. This with no disrespect to those who think differently and will always be free to use their own preferred vocabulary.

I dislike the term birthing person intensely. It doesn't feel inclusive of me at all. The only sex who can gestate and deliver babies have female anatomy, science cannot be denied. Women can identify as men if that is their preference but their anatomy is female. Cumbersome phrases instead of accurate words will not change that, and is offensive to very many women and men.

Rosie51so what would you call someone who was a surrogate birthing person? Who never intends to be a mother to the child, who has no genetic connection to the child as it was the result of an embryo from the father's sperm and the mother's egg, but who gives birth to the child? Or someone who gives birth to a child knowing it will immediately be adopted?
It's ridiculous to go on about changing the vocabulary or complicated words and phrases. A simple two word phrase covers a lot of eventualities which weren't even thought of until very recently.

She is a surrogate mother as she gives birth to a child that has grown in her womb, although not genetically related to her. The phrase 'Surrogate mother is also two words and sums up quite neatly exactly what she is.

So the birthing people who are part of the eventualities which weren't even thought of until very recently can use the term "birthing people" and those who are continuing the old eventualities (which have been taking place since the first cavewoman to bear a child - or it may have been Eve - was called a "mother") can still think of themselves as "mother" and be addressed as such. If it is their choice to be a "birthing person" instead, then they can use the new term.

So your sentence in the document would read, "mothers, birth mothers, surrogate mothers, and birthing persons" when birthing persons covers them all. It's just ridiculous and all because you see some sort of threat to the word mother when none exists.

Regardless of the implications, I think the phrase 'birthing persons' almost reduces women to the level of brood mares, its too cold and sounds like something out of The Handmaid's Tale.

Because it’s erasing women and if you erase women, how can their hard-fought-for rights be protected? Why should billions of people who are proud to call themselves mothers have their identity razed in order to mollify a few people who are deluded enough to think men can give birth. If they want to call themselves birthing persons, go right ahead. Just leave me out of it.

Birthing people bollocks! and who ever came up with the idea might have them.

SueDonim it's not just about transmen (although if you believe they are still women as some do I would have thought their views should count) It's about women who give birth but intend to have the child adopted and women who act as surrogates. They are birthing persons, the mother is the adoptive woman or the woman who instigated the surrogacy who may be more genetically linked to the baby than the woman who gives birth. Why should they have to call the birth person the mother?

Working in Reception we tend to hear the words Mum and Dad quite often when referencing the children. So and so's Mum asked this etc etc. What are we supposed to do about that?

Why should a mother be called - a birth person,

I feel that once again women are being dictated to by men or men who are trans women, women who are trans men, or someone identifying as a man.

Anniebach

Why should a mother be called - a birth person,

Because the adoptive mother may want to use that name and the woman who gives birth may not want to use it if she has decided to give the baby up. Because in a surrogate pregnancy the baby may genetically belong to the woman who will raise it and have no real connection to the woman who gives birth. Because a transman may not want to be called 'mother'

Trisher stop forcing such narrow definitions of the word 'mother' on us. A surrogate mother is a surrogate mother. The child in her womb may not be hers biologically, but grows from embryo to baby in her body, her hormones, her nourishment, her care for it are what makes the baby what it is when it is born. During the pregnancy she has provided everything the biological mother, would have provided had it been possible for her to carry the baby.

Yes the discussion about surrogate mothers always diminishes their role, it's part of what makes it easy in some countries for children to be bought and sold.

This says it all for me. www.nct.org.uk/pregnancy/who-will-care-for-you-during-pregnancy/what-midwife

A midwife is called a midwife even when they are male.

M0nica

Trisher stop forcing such narrow definitions of the word 'mother' on us. A surrogate mother is a surrogate mother. The child in her womb may not be hers biologically, but grows from embryo to baby in her body, her hormones, her nourishment, her care for it are what makes the baby what it is when it is born. During the pregnancy she has provided everything the biological mother, would have provided had it been possible for her to carry the baby.

And if she prefers not to be called mother? Because she wants the person she is carrying the baby for to have that title. What is she? Nothing?

It is up to them to decde between themseves what they want to be called. It is not for those outside the relationship to force any particcular vocabulary on them.

M0nica

A midwife is called a midwife even when they are male.

Well all that proves is that your accusations that men are taking over the language and destroying women is wrong.

M0nica

It is up to them to decde between themseves what they want to be called. It is not for those outside the relationship to force any particcular vocabulary on them.

No one is forcing any names on anyone. In legal documents and papers comprehensive terms that cover all sorts of eventualities are often used. What you choose to be called personally is just that your personal choice.