Trans-inclusive push to remove the word ‘mother’ criticised at new hospital unit

A major hospital’s move to swap the word “mother” for “parent” to be inclusive for transgender and surrogate male fathers has been labelled “disturbing”.

A new stand-alone “Mother and Baby” mental health unit at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital has been renamed a “Parent and Baby” Unit to be inclusive of trans and male surrogate dads, sparking criticism of about the push to “erase” the word mother.

The growing use by official organisations to swap the term pregnant women for “pregnant people” and to dump the word mother has sparked a bitter debate recently, with 10 prominent women’s health researchers this week publishing a paper saying it is “dehumanising women”.

When former premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the new purpose built facility in 2020, she said it would support up to 120 women and it would be for “new mums and mums-to-be across the state who require care in a hospital for a peri-natal (immediately before and after birth) mental illness”.

Construction of a new Parent and Baby Unit at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

It was to be called a specialised Mother and Baby Unit, or MBU.

But now the hospital has revealed it will be called a Parent and Baby Unit — and after criticism on social media it defended the decision, saying: “Sydney Local Health District is home to diverse family structures, which include gay, transgendered and non-binary parents.”

The hospital believes the term “parents” will be more “inclusive” of males who have used surrogate women and suffered mental problems, or women who have transitioned to become male and who “don’t identify as mothers”.

The original statement announcing the unit said it “will support up to 120 women with acute or ongoing severe mental illness from across the state each year.”

Save Women’s Sport Australasia co-founder Katherine Deves said she had suffered post-natal depression with the birth of her children and that it was a very specific condition related to hormones and the process of giving birth, breastfeeding and adjusting to newborns.

“Erasing the language of women and mothers does not achieve equality,” she said.

“The single defining characteristic of women is that we are the sex that bears children. The moment that we start interfering with that process and pretending that this is not true, we create discrimination that is not warranted.

Katherine Deves.

Anna Kerr.

“The ecosystem of human rights is delicate, removing rights that naturally attach to women as mothers is dehumanising, and abnegates the existing rights of one group at the expense of another.

Feminist Legal Clinic principal solicitor Anna Kerr, who advocates on behalf of women, said the “continued erasure of mothers is extremely disturbing”.

“The replacement of the word “mother” with the word “parent” in this context ignores significant differences between men and women.

“The increasing commodification of women’s reproduction through surrogacy does nothing to advance equality but constitutes a major breach of the human rights of both mothers and children.

“Child-bearing obviously has a far greater physical and psychological impact on women than on men and to try and minimise this is bizarre.

“Sex-specific support services and facilities for maternity must continue. This is in keeping with Australia’s international human rights.”

A spokeswoman for the Sydney Local Health District said majority of patients admitted to the unit RPA Parent would be women, “however, Sydney Local Health District — and broader NSW — is home to diverse family structures involving people who identify as gay, transgender or non-binary”.

“This includes gay men who have become parents via surrogacy and transgendered parents who do not identify as ‘mothers’ even if they have birthed the baby,” she said.

The eight-bed facility will include large bedrooms able to accommodate a parent, up to two infants and a partner or family member for weeks or months at a time.