The Swedish Ombudsman for Discrimination (DO) has determined a hospital was guilty of discrimination after a person who gave birth in their maternity ward was referred to as “mother” in medical records despite identifying as a man. The Ombudsman calls it a “clear case of discrimination.”
While staff adhered to the wishes of the patient—spelled out in the birth plan as well as on a whiteboard in the hospital room—and used male pronouns during the birth and aftercare, all medical records did not.
In a letter of complaint to the DO last year, the patient wrote: “Despite multiple occasions at different times and in various contexts when I have said that I want to be referred to with male pronouns, this has been ignored in parts of my medical records. Even though it is clearly stated in the same record.”
The male-identifying woman also felt offended by a survey she received after giving birth, addressed to “pregnant women and new mothers.”
The health care region explains that certain terms—presumably including ‘mother’ for a person who gives birth—are pre-installed in their software and cannot be changed. Changes are in progress, the region said, but DO’s criticism remains.
“For more than ten years now, it has been possible to change gender identity without prior sterilization,” the DO writes. “The region has, nevertheless, not taken any measures to make it possible to change the designation of birthing persons in the medical records system to a gender-neutral term.”
Marie Bennermo, head of patient safety, told Sörmlands Nyheter last year that the healthcare system has not kept up with the new changes: “It may be that we are stuck in the idea that a mother is a mother, and a father is a father. That is why it is important to learn from cases like these.”
Or maybe hospitals and health care providers should stick to the medical and biological facts?
