Students training as midwives reportedly learned how to assist a ‘pregnant biological male’

According to material provided to the feminist website Reduxx by “concerned students” at the institution, the introduction to a skills workbook on catheterization states: “It is important to note that while most times the birthing person will have female genitalia, you may be caring for a pregnant or birthing person who is transitioning from male to female and may still have external male genitalia.”

“You need to be familiar with the catheterization procedure for both female and male anatomy. For this reason, where appropriate, this book refers to the birthing person.”

(Image: Screengrab/Reduxx)

“While the introduction of the manual could perhaps be dismissed as a mistake, misprint, or uninitiated individual attempting to utilize ‘inclusive’ language, the University-made workbook clearly moves on to providing students instruction on how to accommodate a pregnant biological male,” according to Reduxx.

The outlet notes that there are two sections that state the “birthing person” could be a biological male.

According to one section that describes the pre-procedure, “It is important to note that while most times the pregnant or birthing person will have female genitalia, you may be caring for a person who has transitioned from male to female and may therefore still have external male genitalia.”

(Image: Screengrab/Reduxx)

Another section mentions male anatomy in describing the procedure.

(Image: Screengrab/Reduxx)

In a section providing instructions on the removal of catheters, specific terms for male anatomy including “prostate” and “penis” are used regarding discomfort to the patient.

“Note: male persons should be warned of discomfort as the deflated balloon passes through the prostate gland,” the document reads.

(Image: Screengrab/Reduxx)

“While instruction staff later realized the significant errors made, the hasty edit to the guidebook only corrected the initial wording in the introduction, changing ‘male to female’ to ‘female to male.’ All references to the handling of a penis, prostate gland, and other male biology remained, but also added the suggestion a female to male transgender person could give birth through a surgically constructed ‘penis’,” Reduxx reported. “Despite the seemingly sloppy edit, concerns remain from students and experts about the lack of care given to the manual and instruction.”

The Daily Mail quoted gynecologist and obstetrician Dr. Leila Hanna, who said “universities should focus on teaching midwives ‘what’s actually doable’” and that “a lot of things need to be done to arrive at the technology to be able to do that (a biological man giving birth).”

‘We would have to be able to give men wombs and then put eggs and sperm in there — I’ve not seen any publications to say we’ve arrived at that technology yet,” she told the outlet. “Let’s focus on improving what we do, and what’s doable, but let’s not go dreaming of things which are probably not going to happen tomorrow.”