Report: University Schools Midwifery Students on the Handling of the Birthing Penis

For those of you with penises who may give birth, you’ll be glad to know college students are preparing to care for your needs.

As seen in documents reportedly obtained by feminist site Reduxx, those studying midwifery at Scotland’s prominent Edinburgh Napier University were recently provided a “Skills Workbook.”

The topic at…hand: catheterization.

Per the material, according to Reduxx:

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.

The manual goes on to describe how to catheterize the penis (and working urethra) of the expectant human:

Male Anatomy Catheterization: Procedure

Prepare the person, maintaining their dignity. Place a disposable pad underneath (help remove underwear if necessary).

In the acute setting: Screen the bed; in the community setting: Close curtains/door.

Assist the person into a supine position with legs extended on the bed.

Ensure the person feels comfortable.

Wash hands again, or decontaminate with hand sanitizer, and put on disposable apron. Put on first pair of sterile gloves.

Place sterile towel across the person’s thighs, ensuring the scrotal area is covered.

Wrap a sterile swab around the penis and, with the same non-touch technique, retract the foreskin if present.

In the anesthesia section, different doses are prescribed for females (six milliliters) and males (eleven milliliters).

As for post-procedure efforts, the workbook gets to the meat of things:

Female anatomy: Clean the area from front to back and make the person comfortable.

Male anatomy: Clean the meatus and make the person comfortable.

If a biological male is about to pass a baby through his penis, he surely won’t be comfortable for long.

Meanwhile, culture has given birth to a new set of sexual standards.

And the world is dilating to make room:

To Be Inclusive of Non-Binary Parents, Hospitals Nix the Terms ‘Breast Milk’ and ‘Father’

Breastfeeding Academy Bails on ‘Breasts’

Hospitals Are Starting to Ask Men if They’re Pregnant

'The Practising Midwife' Magazine Releases Transgender Issue Featuring Bearded Birthing Parenthttps://t.co/XRxOFj1vHa pic.twitter.com/hfjSKdmyx1

— Alex Parker (@alexparker1984) May 6, 2022

In any period of transition, adjustment takes time:

A Woman Undergoes Surgery to Have a Penis Added, but Doctors Remove Her Vagina – Which She Wanted to Keep

As noted by Reduxx, Chartered Society for Physiotherapy Fellow Elaine Miller isn’t in agreement with Edinburgh Napier’s instruction.

She alleges errors:

“It is not possible for a male person to get pregnant,” Miller said, continuing that even the hasty edits the instructors made were rife with impossibilities.

“A [female] with a gender difference can become pregnant but will not have male genitalia,” she notes, expressing concern that even if instruction was given on serving female-to-male transgender patients, the information was still both incomplete and unrealistic.

“Most [females] who use testosterone, at the doses used for ‘transition,’ will develop vaginal atrophy. The fragile tissue of an atrophied vagina may be unable to stretch to accommodate a baby’s head,” Miller says, also noting that female-to-male transgender people who wish to naturally deliver are at risk of sustaining “new types of birth injury” that have not yet been studied or investigated.

“Examining this potential risk is probably more important than learning to remove a catheter from a non-existent prostate gland.”

Well, times are changing. And so, it appears, are possibilities. The university — which, purportedly, has now edited its catheterization guide — may have raised eyebrows with talk of birthing penises; but the stork of modern technology has all kinds of miracles on the way:

Doctor planning risky womb transplant to allow transgender woman to carry a baby – World News – Mirror Online
⁦@11thBlog⁩ https://t.co/ZIduZpZsOI

— Jennifer Bilek (@bjportraits) May 5, 2022