Maternity records in the UK have spaces only for the expectant mother and the baby’s father. This inflexibility can cause difficulties for the pregnant person, their partner, and their unborn baby if they do not fit into these boxes.
No data is available for the numbers of trans men (that is, female-to-male transgender people) who give birth in the UK. But some trans men choose to do so, and the number of referrals to gender identity clinics is rising each year.
Research shows that problems occur when heteronormativity—the perception that heterosexuality is the normal, default, or preferred sexual orientation—is communicated either overtly or subtly in the way healthcare staff treat patients, the way leaflets are worded, or the assumptions made in the way administration systems are designed.
This means that co-mothers (the non-birth mothers in lesbian families) may not be recognised as parents, and so miss out on support such as breastfeeding advice for example, and it can leave both pregnant trans men and lesbian co-mothers feeling excluded.
For co-mothers in particular, this seems linked to their sense of connection with the baby, and from the extent to which they feel recognised as a parent or not by maternity services, family and friends and wider society. The combined stress of identifying oneself as lesbian or bisexual to healthcare staff, and the attitudes of wider society, alongside the stress of pregnancy generally are greater than that experienced by heterosexual pregnant women, and represent a plausible reason for higher symptoms of postnatal depression among lesbians.
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