Should Mother Baby Units be renamed Parent Baby Units? A critical reflection on gendered language in perinatal psychiatry.

Abstract

Objective: Mother Baby Units provide mental health care to parents experiencing severe perinatal mental illness. The majority of admitted parents identify as mothers and are the birthing parent and primary caregiver for their infants. However, there is increasing recognition of transgender and gender diverse people who birth and parent infants, as well as awareness of the mental health needs of fathers, people in same-sex relationships, and other non-birthing parents. As such there are moves to use ungendered language for health services including renaming these units as Parent Baby Units. This paper explores this debate, critically reflecting on emergent tensions.

Conclusion: Movements towards, and resistance against, changing language in perinatal mental health care are attempts to ensure the visibility of groups within mainstream services. Whether to adopt new terminology is a complex question. But ensuring MBUs meet the needs of people who require them should remain paramount.