Gender-Inclusive Language in Public-Facing Labor and Delivery Web Pages in the New York Tristate Area:...

Transgender and nonbinary (TGNB) individuals are increasingly intentionally becoming pregnant to raise children, and hospital websites should reflect these trends. For prospective TGNB parents, a hospital website is the only way they can assess their safety from discrimination while receiving perinatal care. Cisnormativity enforced by communication gaps between medical institutions and TGNB patients can and has caused delays in receiving urgent care during their pregnancy.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the current prevalence of gender-inclusive terminology among labor and delivery services in the New York tristate area.

The labor and delivery web pages of 189 hospitals from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut were examined for gender-inclusive language. "Fully inclusive" websites explicitly acknowledged lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual plus other gender- and sexual-oriented (LGBTQIA+) parents, "inclusive" websites did not use gendered terminology for parents, and "noninclusive" websites used gendered terms at least once in the text reviewed. The hospitals' web pages were further stratified by Healthcare Equality Index scores and population classifications defined by the 2013 National Center for Health Statistics Urban-Rural classification given to the county that each hospital was located in.

Of the 300 hospital websites reviewed, only 189 websites met the criteria for inclusion. Overall, only 6.3% (n=12) of labor and delivery web pages were "inclusive" or "fully inclusive." No geographic areas (P=.61) or Healthcare Equality Index scores (P=.81) were associated with inclusive or fully inclusive language.

Hospitals need to use inclusive language to help TGNB people identify hospitals where their existence and needs are acknowledged and thus feel more comfortable in their transition to parenthood.