Though trans dads like Danny Wakefield, left, and Kayden Coleman are open about their pregnancy and birth stories, a lack of cultural awareness continues to fuel misinformation and stigma. (Danny Wakefield via Instagram/Kayden X Coleman via Instagram)
When Danny Wakefield gave birth to their first child in 2020, it brought to light a string of issues faced by transgender parents in the health care system.
“I had a really hard pregnancy,” Wakefield, 36, who is transgender but also uses they/them pronouns, tells Yahoo Life. During emergency room visits, Wakefield says they were met with “snickers” from nurses, as well as “doubt, disbelief and a lack of knowledge” from physicians ill-equipped to handle their needs.
“In one instance, it took an hour and a half to get them to treat me because they didn't believe I was pregnant,” Wakefield says. “The doctors and nurses would talk quietly among themselves, asking each other questions about me, instead of asking me directly — the patient who's sitting right in front of them.”
Stories like Wakefield’s are not uncommon, says Dr. Juno Obedin-Maliver, assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine. That’s mainly because the medical establishment — and society at large — has little knowledge about pregnancy in the trans male population.
“We grow up in a world with books, from preschool on up, that until very recently have not imagined or really represented the diversity of communities as they are,” Obedin-Maliver tells Yahoo Life. “None of our systems have been designed to delineate the difference between somebody's gender and somebody's pregnancy capacity.”
That’s slowly changing, Obedin-Maliver points out, due to a growing demand from transgender patients — and because more and more are sharing their stories, as with a recently trending New York Times Op-Doc about a trans man giving birth in a small town in Mexico.
Though trans dads like Danny Wakefield, left, and Kayden Coleman are open about their pregnancy and birth stories, a lack of cultural awareness continues to fuel misinformation and stigma. (Danny Wakefield via Instagram/Kayden X Coleman via Instagram)
you know. The one birthing Biden!
