A woman’s frustrated post about being labeled “geriatric” by her doctor as she was trying to get pregnant at age 38 has kicked off a new effort to “reclaim the terminology used around trying to conceive, pregnancy and motherhood.” Her post was on Peanut, a social networking app for women, fertility and motherhood, and it caught the attention of fellow user Chrissy Teigen, who commented, “Can we change the language here please?” And that’s just what they’re doing now.
Teigen has teamed up with Peanut for “The Renaming Revolution” to change some outdated terms commonly used by doctors and replace them with more sensitive, modern language. They’ve just released the updates in the “Renaming Revolution" glossary, which was created with help from linguists and medical professionals and will be distributed to clinics and doctors. The hope is to get away from blame or hurtful labels by using terms that “serve the same purpose while empowering women rather than shaming them,” explains Dr. Somi Javaid, who helped create the glossary.
The updated terms include:
●“Infertile” and “barren” have been replaced with “reproductive struggles”
●“Biological clock” is now referred to as “family planning”
●“Early pregnancy loss” replaces “chemical pregnancy.”
●“Pregnancy loss” instead of “spontaneous abortion”
●“Morning sickness” has become “pregnancy nausea”
●“Birth plans” will be renamed “birth preferences”
●“Full-time childcarer” has been suggested as an alternative to “stay-at-home mom” or “full-time mom”
●And the one that started it all, “geriatric” and “advanced maternal age” are being swapped for “35+” which refers to the woman’s age.
Source: Yahoo