Gender-inclusive language in public-facing labor and delivery webpages in the New York City tristate area: An observational study (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND Transgender and nonbinary individuals are increasingly becoming gestational parents, and hospital websites should reflect these trends. For prospective transgender parents, a hospital website is the only way patients can assess their safety from discrimination while receiving perinatal care. Cisnormativity enforced by communication gaps between medical institutions and transgender patients can and has caused delays in receiving urgent care during their pregnancy. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the current prevalence of gender-inclusive terminology among labor and delivery services in the New York City tristate area. METHODS The labor and delivery webpages 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, Asexual plus other gender and sexual oriented (LGBTQIA+) patients, “inclusive” websites did not use gendered terminology for patients, and “non-inclusive” websites used gendered terms at least once in the text reviewed. The hospitals’ webpages were further stratified by Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) scores and population classifications defined by the 2013 National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Urban-Rural classification given to the county that each hospital was located in. RESULTS Of the 300 hospital websites reviewed and only 189 websites met criteria for inclusion. Overall, only 6.3% (n = 12) of labor and delivery webpages were “inclusive” or “fully inclusive”. No geographic areas (P = .61) or HEI score (P = .81) were associated with inclusive or fully inclusive language. CONCLUSIONS Hospitals need to utilize inclusive language to help gender-nonconforming people identify hospitals where their existence and needs are acknowledged and thus feel more comfortable in their transition to parenthood.