On March 28, 2018, an information agency Georgia and World disseminated news that maternity homes in UK allegedly ask staff to avoid using such terms that would offend transgender people.
The information disseminated by Geworld is a lie. British Medical Journal published an article on February 8, 2018, which recommends medical staff to replace certain phrases with alternative terms, with a goal of more efficient communication with patients in mind. None of the terms concern gender.
1. British Medical Journal suggests the medical staff to avoid using irritating and dramatic phrases.
British Medical Journal published an article about substituting certain terms used by medical staff in maternity homes on February 8, 2018, which explains that a good intrapartum communication is an important factor for the success of birth. Therefore, it recommends the medical staff of maternity homes to substitute certain phrases with alternative terms. For instance: the medical staff should avoid using such irritating, dramatic phrases, as: “fetal distress” or “big baby”. Instead, they should rather use terms such as: “changes in the baby’s heart rate pattern”; “healthy baby”. None of the recommendatory terms mentioned in the article concern the gender issue.
2. Russian primary sources
We can find the identical piece of information on a Russian information website Ria Novosti, which cites British Medical Journal as the primary source, however, the indicated link redirects us to the main page of the website, instead of the specific article. Such article could not be found by the search engine of the website either.
The same material is used by some Russian websites: newinform.com, woman.rambler.ru.
Prepared by Lana Kapanadze
Myth Detector Lab
