We are birth workers and activists, focused on the pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding concerns of women. Sex-based language is important due to sex-based oppression.
Our latest posts
Should trans identified men be supported to breastfeed? Why we say the answer’s ‘no’
Every so often, social media and the mainstream press get fired up with accounts of trans identified men breastfeeding. Here are a few In these cases, we’re told the subjects have taken steps to produce breastmilk. It appears they use a protocol originally designed for adoptive mothers. Here’s five good reasons why health and maternity services should not support it. 1. A partner, or anyone, attempting to share, complement or substitute the mother’s…
Keep reading
UPDATE: Pause on £100k NHS award for training maternity units in trans inclusion.
Here’s why With Woman is cheering! If you’ve seen anything of this blog, seen our Twitter, followed any of our growing number of supporters, you’ll have seen the tale of the Invitation to Quote, to train maternity units in the language, and practice, of trans inclusion. The ITQ was published at the height of the UK Christmas/New Year season and almost – almost! – flew under the radar. Those of us concerned at…
Keep readingPRESS RELEASE: Clinicians and researchers urge NHS England to pause £100K transgender midwifery training covering 40 Trusts
9 January 2023 A group of 1400 health practitioners, researchers and members of the public today sent a letter to NHS England urging that the imminent Maternity Gender Inclusion Programme (MGIP) be put on hold. The letter warned that a scandal similar to the events that led to the closure of the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) could be repeated in the MGIP – which would train midwives at 40 NHS Trusts…
Keep readingPRESS RELEASE: Experts warn new transgender training for NHS maternity services based on ‘bogus’ research
For immediate release 5 January 2023 A group of NHS health practitioners and researchers has warned that 40 NHS England Trusts are at risk of ideological capture based on flawed research if the new Maternity Gender Inclusion Programme (MGIP) proceeds. Signatures on an open letter to NHS England are being collected by the campaign group With Woman, which represents maternity and infant health practitioners including midwives and obstetricians who are concerned about the…
Keep reading
Ideological capture at the heart of the NHS
When our collective, With Woman, heard there was research project underway called Improving Trans Experiences of Maternity Services (ITEMS) we welcomed the news. As a group of midwives, doulas and others with an interest in pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, we want all who use maternity services to have the best experience they can possibly have. But in May last year, when the ITEMS report was published, it quickly became clear it was little…
Keep reading
Open letter: Pause £100k midwifery training based on flawed research into trans maternity experiences
Please sign our letter to the NHS England National LGBT Programme
Keep readingWhy We Are With Woman
We are birth workers and activists, focused on the pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding concerns of women. Sex-based language is important due to sex-based oppression.The sex chromosomes you receive at conception, the sex you are born as, has a profound effect on your reproductive, physical and social life. Those who are female have specific health needs and they are discriminated against based on their sex. We believe that confusing the idea of gender identity…
Keep readingGender ideology: birth and breastfeeding organisations captured
By Robin Jones How mothers lose out when the organisations set up to support them decide sex no longer matters. In the last few years, have you found yourself having difficult conversations with other people, many of whom you thought believed in things much the same as you do? Have you found yourself ‘policing’ your language in situations where previously you wouldn’t have? Have you found yourself feeling astonished at reading or hearing…
Keep readingSex-based language: vital for women’s rights
In January 2022, Sweden’s biggest-circulation tabloid, Aftonbladet, published a challenge to the language of gender ideology. By writer and birth activist Kristina Turner, it explains why she and other Swedish feminists are fighting to retain sex-based language in maternity and health care. With the kind permission of the writer and the newspaper, here is an edited English translation. Gender identity must not trump women’s rights, says Kristina Turner. Removing words like ‘woman’ and…
Keep readingWhy as midwives we oppose paediatric transition
We are midwives, doulas and breastfeeding counsellors concerned about the use of puberty blockers and mastectomies for girls experiencing gender dysphoria. We care for women in their reproductive cycles and understand women’s sexuality and sexual activity as important; therefore we are concerned about the impact of these treatment pathways on their future lives. We support healthy expressions of sexuality and reproductive choice and think teenagers should be allowed to go through puberty, and develop sexual…
Keep readingMarch with Midwives – Inclusion and Exclusion
Anna is a midwife and part of the With Woman collective. She writes about the challenges facing midwifery in the UK; the grassroots movement March with Midwives; and their exclusion of women who hold and express feminist beliefs. This article was first published on Womans Place UK on 28th November 2021 March with Midwives Last Sunday, 20,000 people, mostly women, took to the streets to ‘March With Midwives’. A grassroots movement started by a…
Keep reading
With Woman 