Australia's Top University Unveils New Terms For Mother And Father

Australia National University has updated its Gender Institute Handbook to offer new words for mother and father.

It's aimed at introducing trans-friendly language in the workplace and learning landscape.

According to News Corp, the handbook is 'for any ANU student or staff member involved or interested in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students'.

However, it's 'not an official ANU policy, process or official prescription to staff and students'.

In the handbook, people wanting to refer to mums and dads will now be urged to say 'gestational parent' instead of mother and 'non-birthing parent' instead of father when talking to colleagues and students.

"While many students will identify as 'mothers' or 'fathers', using these terms alone to describe parenthood excludes those who do not identify with gender-binaries," the book states.

"This non-gendered language is particularly important in clinical or abstract academic discussions of childbirth and parenthood, both to recognise the identities of students in the class, and to model inclusive behaviour for students entering clinical practice."

It also has updated words like breastfeeding and breastmilk, with people now urged to say chestfeeding and chestmilk.

The university understands that people might make mistakes during this transition period, which is totally okay, as long as you learn from the experience.

The handbook even has a guide on what to do if you use the wrong terminology.

"Do not worry if you make a mistake, simply acknowledge it and correct yourself,'' the handbook instructs. "Language habits take practice to overcome, and students respect the efforts you make to be inclusive."

The shift in language is similar to a hospital in the UK introducing a new trans-friendly terminology for its maternity services

The idea has already been turned into standard policy at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust in order to 'reflect the gender identity of the individual'.

The hospital has also adopted the terms such as 'chestfeeding' and 'chestmilk, while mother is also referred to as 'birthing parent'.

"At BSUH we acknowledge the additional challenges that gender identity can have on pregnancy, birth and infant feeding. We recognise the importance of providing inclusive, respectful perinatal care to all pregnant people and their families," a statement said.

"We are proud to care for trans and non-binary (including agender, bigender and genderqueer) people as birthing parents and co-parents, and to celebrate and affirm their journey to parenthood."

The hospital trust is keen to see how the new language policy plays out.

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Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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