Heather (she/her) is a midwife educator and health services researcher who strives to grow and diversify the midwifery and women’s health nurse practitioner workforce, address inequities within perinatal care, and improve perinatal outcomes. She is an Assistant Professor, the Mary L. and Raymond T. Holden Endowed Professor for Maternal and Infant Health and serves as the Assistant Program Director for the Nurse-Midwifery/Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner Program at the GU Berkley School of Nursing. She completed her PhD in nursing science in 2023 from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing studying weight bias among midwives. She has engaged in legislative advocacy for advanced practice nurses at the state and federal level. Her research is centered on workforce development, mitigating clinician weight bias, and advancing health equity in perinatal care.
The Power of Language in Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare: Harms and Opportunities
The provision of safe and respectful sexual and reproductive healthcare (SRH) is a core value of reproductive justice. A health professional’s language and oral delivery with a patient lays the foundation of the clinical encounter. Intentionality in choosing respectful and inclusive language can positively influence whether patients feel valued and heard as human beings. Language found in electronic health records can also convey bias and disrespect. In today’s healthcare environment, patients routinely read what is written in their electronic health record and have found the chart note offensive. Spoken or written words can be discriminatory, stigmatizing or dehumanizing, fraught with violence or shame, exclusionary, or imply a power dynamic. Current terms for female body parts or procedures are also named after white cisgender men who practiced eugenics. Principles in SRH language (spoken and written) that guide health professionals include use of non-discriminatory, patient–centered, strength-based, person-first language that promotes patient autonomy and shared decision-making. Clinicians should promote use of a new lexicon when referring to procedures and female body parts that describe what they are and not the names of the people who “invented” them. These principles are in direct alignment with the GU Berkley School Of Nursing mission and values and commitment to equity diversity, inclusion, belonging, justice and anti-racism. As a nurse-midwife, educator and perinatal health services researcher who seeks to advance health equity, educating SRH clinicians about the harms and opportunities of language operationalizes reproductive justice in the health care setting and has the potential to expand clinician knowledge and improve SRH care quality and patient satisfaction.