BBL 206: The Case Against Erasing Women From Pregnancy & Birth

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In this week’s podcast, I dive deep into a critical issue that impacts women and girls in pregnancy, birth, and motherhood: the dangers of erasing women from these conversations. 

In an era where “birthing person” and “chestfeeding” are becoming normalized, we must ask: Who is this really serving? 

Women are the heart of these experiences. By using gender-neutral language, we undermine the unique role of women in pregnancy, birth, and nurturing. It erases the very essence of motherhood and ignores the realities women face in their healthcare.

Join me as I discuss why we need to stand firm for women and girls, protect sex-specific language, and preserve the sacred connection between mothers and their babies.

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Topics I Cover in This Podcast:

  • Why using terms like “woman” and “mother” in pregnancy, birth, and motherhood matters. 
  • Most realize the transgender movement puts vulnerable children at risk - but here’s why it matters for mothers and babies, too 
  • How phrases like “birthing person” and “chestfeeding” dehumanize and erase women from their own experiences.
  • Why we should not dehumanize women by labeling them by their body parts 
  • Are we stepping right back to Aristotle’s women as “failed men” hypothesis?
  • Desexing language skews research and data in pregnancy and birth, making it less accurate and useful for women’s health (note: “1 in 8 people” is NOT the same as “1 in 8 women” when you’re reading research!) 
  • Why replacing “mother” with neutral terms reduces women’s unique role to a mechanical, depersonalized process.
  • How we gaslight vulnerable women when we criticize them for using sex-specific language 
  • Does complex, gender-neutral language disproportionately harms women with lower literacy or non-native English speakers? (answer: it does) 
  • How blurring lines between men and women’s roles in birth and parenting undermines women’s decision-making power in pregnancy and childbirth. 
  • Who should REALLY make the decisions about pregnancy and birth (hint: it’s the woman giving birth)
  • Why protecting and prioritizing the sacred bond between mother and baby is crucial for society’s health and well-being
  • The deeper implications of gender-neutral language on public health policy, maternal leave, and support systems for women. 
  • The need to protect women’s spaces, voices, and rights in the face of increasing societal erasure. 
  • How the focus on women’s health and rights has been eroded by the transgender debate
  • Why the erasure of women actually undermines diversity and reinforces sex stereotypes 
  • See some real examples of how women are being erased from public health campaigns and even advertising 
  • Maternal mortality is RISING in the United States and other countries - is this REALLY a time to remove women from our health language and research? 
  • Who is REALLY served when we erase women (hint: it’s all about the money, baby)
  • How hook-up culture has led to the commodification and marketisation of women (yep - then the next step is to erase the thoughts, feelings, and concerns of REAL women) 
  • Meat-Lego marketing and “men in women’s spaces” rhetoric leads to great danger for vulnerable women and girls, who are gaslit not only by narcissistic, abusive men, but by an entire SOCIETY that tells them they must accept those men-who-now-identify-as-women. 
  • Are we REALLY back to telling women to sit down and shut up?

Right-click here to download the MP3 

Things Mentioned on This Week's Podcast 

Examples of the Erasure of Women

These were all originally collected by Milli Hill - subscribe to her Substack to get The Word is Woman every week!

(NOTE: Want a Perfect Birth Plan Template? Use this template and step-by-step videos to write a birth plan that gets your birth team on your side for a beautiful birth experience! Get the birth plan kit here.)

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Birth, Baby, and Life Podcast
Birth, Baby, and Life Podcast
Kristen Burgess: Crazy About Everything Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Baby
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