Of course babies aren't born with a 'gender identity'
Accurately recording sex on a patient’s health record is vital for ensuring they receive the correct medical care.
It’s a girl!’ New parents, after a long labour or at a mid-pregnancy scan, take huge joy from discovering the sex of their baby. Imagined futures fall into place as the newborn becomes a son or daughter. Relatives are told whether they have a niece or nephew, a grandson or granddaughter. These things matter. Not, for the most part, because parents have a preference, but because with the sex announced, a mystery is revealed and a new person takes his or her place in the world.
Shockingly, it seems that the NHS is intent on denying mothers and fathers this pleasure. A new patient record system, produced by a giant American IT company, Epic Systems, gives midwives the option of recording a baby’s gender identity. In other words, not whether the baby is male or female but whether it feels itself to be more masculine or feminine.
In my experience as a mum of three, the best way of finding out whether my offspring were boys or girls was with a quick glance between their legs. If memory serves me correctly, this happened multiple times a day when their nappies were changed. My babies were all quite advanced, of course, but I am certain that if I had asked them about their gender identity, I would have been met with wailing, vomiting or yawning. Quite right too.
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