Childbirth campaigner ‘cancelled’ for saying violence during pregnancy was committed against women
Bestselling pregnancy author who crticised the use of the term ‘birthing people’ instead of women claims she was ‘cancelled’ on social media and dropped by a charity she’s worked with for years
- Milli Hill, a bestselling author, said she experienced ‘extreme bullying’ online
- Comments she made on Instagram last November saw her subject to criticism
- She finds it ‘troubling’ that people are being ‘silenced’ for expressing their views
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A childbirth campaigner has claimed she was ‘cancelled’ for taking issue with the term ‘birthing people’ instead of women.
Milli Hill, a UK-based bestselling author, said she experienced ‘extreme bullying’ after she made the comments on social media last year.
The mother-of-three was called out by a stranger on Instagram last November, who wrote: ‘Birthing people are seen as “the fragile sex’ who need to be kept under patriarchal authority by doctors.’
Hill replied: ‘I would challenge the term “birthing person” in this context though. It is women who are seen as the “fragile sex” etc, and obstetric violence [medical interventions performed during childbirth without a woman’s consent] is violence against women.’
After the comments, she was subjected to waves of online hate, and some called for her books to be boycotted, while she was dropped by a charity she’d worked alongside for years.
The mother-of-three said she experienced ‘extreme bullying’ after she made the comments on social media last November, and people said to boycott her book
One comment read: ‘Let’s just air it. Milli Hill. We shouldn’t be buying her books. We shouldn’t be gifting them. We shouldn’t be following her. We shouldn’t be quoting her. She had dangerous opinions, beliefs and views.’
In 2012, Milli founded the Positive Birth Movement, a network of support groups for pregnant women, while her work for the last decade as a journalist and author has featured heavily around women’s reproductive lives.
On her blog, she explains that around three years ago, she noted a changed in language around childbirth, particularly the two phrases ‘birthing people’ – which was used alongside or instead of “women”, and ‘assigned male/female at birth’.
She says she found the latter ‘confusing’ because the sex of babies is more often than not determined in prenatal tests and scans, rather than birth, while the word ‘assigned’ implies something is given to you, not innate – like biological sex is.
Milli, who used to be a creative psychotherapist and worked with young people post abuse and trauma, continued: ‘My work and thinking around obstetric violence had led me to the view that it is “sex based violence.” Please note my use of the word sex here, not gender….
‘What I saw happening in this slide was a genuine mix up between the absolutely correct idea that the problem here is patriarchy, a system that oppresses and damages women on the basis of their sex, and obfuscating terminology that is unable to name the oppressed people.’
After being tagged in the comment online, Milli went on to say she felt the need to speak out and so responded to the account which had few followers – adding she just felt ‘moved to say what she thought.’
Childbirth campaigner Milli Hill says she was ‘cancelled’ for saying violence during pregnancy was committed against women and and not ‘birthing people’
However, a doula posted screenshots of her comments on her stories and ‘all hell broke loose.’
Shortly after, Milli was contacted by Amy Gibbs, the chief executive of Birthrights, a charity that campaigns for human rights during childbirth.
Milli, who closed The Positive Birth Movement in 2021 in part due to the bullying she’s experienced, had worked with the organisation for a number of years.
Amy wrote that she was ‘really concerned’ to see the comments made by Milli about obstetric violence.
She added these were ‘challenging/disputing that it could happen to non-binary or trans people who give birth’.
Amy said: ‘As you know, obstetric violence is violence perpetuated in the maternity context, which means it can happen to birthing people who don’t identify as women. I’m afraid that Birthrights isn’t able to work with people who don’t share our inclusive values.’
Milli said she finds it ‘troubling’ that people are being ‘silenced’ for expressing their views, and found there has been an unwillingness to engage in discussion.
She told The Times: ‘I fully support trans and non-binary people and acknowledge that they also give birth, but as a person whose work has been centred [on] female biology, I should not be attacked or have my livelihood threatened for asking for nuanced discussion, or worse still, for simply stating facts.’
Birthrights responded, saying: ‘Equality and inclusion is core to our ethos, and our services are available to everyone who is pregnant. We regularly review all our partnerships to ensure they reflect our values.’
