ArticleBirth (Berkeley, Calif.)2025
Gender-inclusive language in midwifery and perinatal services: A guide and argument for justice.
Article in Birth (Berkeley, Calif.), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A qualitative systematic review of the implications of desexed language in women's healthcare and healthcare literature.Women's health (London, England)Pooled it
- Comparative efficacy of two kangaroo care scheduling methods on depressed mood and mental health in birthing parents of preterm infants: a randomized clinical trial.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2026Trial
- Exploring the use of gender-inclusive language amongst health care students and staff in obstetrics and gynaecology.Medical education · 2026Article
- Interrogating the Effects of Technologies of Pregnancy Surveillance on Queer, Trans and Nonbinary Midwifery Service-Users.Sociology of health & illness · 2026Article
- Gender Inclusivity and Exclusivity in US Hospitals' Online Obstetrics, Labor and Delivery, and Pregnancy-Related Resources: Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Observational
- Exploring Nursing Implications in the Standards of Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Health, Version 8 by Coleman et al. (2022).Journal of advanced nursing · 2026Article
- Perspectives on gender-inclusive language in Canadian sexual and reproductive health care: findings from a modified Delphi survey.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- Birthing beyond the binary: An interpretative Phenomenological analysis of perinatal mental health experiences among genderqueer and nonbinary birthing people.International journal of transgender health · 2026Article
- Caring for the LGBTQIA+ Patient: A Best-Practices Primer on Language, Sexual Function Considerations, and Health Disparities in Gynecologic Care.Journal of minimally invasive gynecology · 2026Review
- A Proposal for Terminology for Clear Communication and Avoidance of Confusion in Relation to Sex, the Social Expectations of the Sexes and Gender Identity.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Article
- From Midwife to Lead Perinatal Practitioner: A Utopian Vision.Birth (Berkeley, Calif.) · 2025Article
- Gender-inclusive language in midwifery and perinatal services: A guide and argument for justice.Birth (Berkeley, Calif.) · 2025Article
- Exploring Midwives' and Nurse-Midwives' Professional Identity and How Midwifery May Be Best Represented in the Public Realm: A Global Convergent Parallel Mixed-Methods Study.Journal of advanced nursing · 2025Article
- Integrating recommendations for transgender and gender non-conforming perinatal care in the NHS: A qualitative exploration of healthcare professionals' views.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Warming the Whare: An Indigenous knowledge centered guideline for trans health justice in perinatal care.International journal of transgender health · 2025Article
- Commentary: Effective communication about pregnancy, birth, lactation, breastfeeding and newborn care: the importance of sexed language.Frontiers in global women's health · 2024Article
- Person-centeredness of the San Francisco Pregnancy Village model of cross-sector care delivery: A mixed-methods study.Women's health (London, England)Article
- The experiences of sexual and gender minorities accessing perinatal care: A scoping review.Women's health (London, England)Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Effective communication in relation to pregnancy and birth is crucial to quality care. A recent focus in reproductive healthcare on "sexed language" reflects an ideology of unchangeable sex binary and fear of erasure, from both cisgender women and the profession of midwifery. In this paper, we highlight how privileging sexed language causes harm to all who birth-including pregnant trans, gender diverse, and non-binary people-and is, therefore, unethical and incompatible with the principles of midwifery. We show how this argument, which conflates midwifery with essentialist thinking, is unstable, and perpetuates and misappropriates midwifery's marginalized status. We also explore how sex and gender essentialism can be understood as colonialist, heteropatriarchal, and universalist, and therefore, reinforcing of these harmful principles. Midwifery has both the opportunity and duty to uphold reproductive justice. Midwifery can be a leader in the decolonization of childbirth and in defending the rights of all childbearing people, the majority of whom are cisgender women. As the systemwide use of inclusive language is central to this commitment, we offer guidance in relation to how inclusive language in perinatal and midwifery services may be realized.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.