An Australian government health form has come under fire from a mother who recently gave birth after it referred to moms as “birthing parents.”
Sall Grover, a podcaster from New South Wales who recently gave birth to her daughter Isabelle at Gold Coast University Hospital, criticised the phrase “alienating” after discovering it on official Medicare papers. Sall Grover gave Birth to Isabelle last week.
As a means of venting her frustrations, Grover took to Twitter, where she pointed out that the form asked for the “birthing parent’s complete name” in one box and the “birthing parent’s signature” in another but did not use the word “mother” each time.
Attention women in Australia:
On the form to put our newborn baby on our Medicare card, we are referred to as “birthing parent”.
Enough is enough.
This absolute bullsh*t is exclusionary, alienating and derogatory towards every woman wants to be and is called “mother”. pic.twitter.com/li8vQSWGu6
— Sall Grover (@salltweets) July 19, 2022
Grover said in an email to Australian women, “Attention women in Australia: On the form to put our newborn baby on our Medicare card, we are referred to as the ‘birthing parent.'”
“It’s time to call it quits.
This complete load of bull is discriminatory, hostile, and condescending towards every woman who aspires to the role of mother and is given that title.”
She also revealed to her followers that in the act of defiance, she had crossed out the name “birthing parent” and replaced it with the word “mother.”
She said, “Having to sign my name next to the title ‘birthing parent’ on a government form is just too close to a Handmaid’s Tale dystopia for me to feel relaxed and ‘inclusive,’ to be honest.”
“Anyone who is glad to be dubbed a “birthing parent” on a government form raises a lot of red flags for me,” the speaker said.
Service Australia, the agency of the federal government that is in charge of providing the forms, stated in a statement that it has conducted tests on gender-neutral language and received favourable response from those tests.
According to the general manager of Services Australia, Hank Jongen, the term “birthing parent” is being used on a consent form that is being handed to parents who are taking part in the birth of a Child pilot.