This is my 2250th post since this blog began in June 2009. \u00a0And in all that time I've not had the opportunity to write about Monty Python. \u00a0That is odd given how often I've mentioned ESD which is Pythonesque in everything but name. \u00a0Happily all that is about to change.<\/p>\n
To begin in the late 16th century:\u00a0John Napier<\/a> was born in Edinburgh. \u00a0He invented logarithms in the 1590s and much else besides. \u00a0He had a Scottish seat of higher learning named after him in Edinburgh in 1964. \u00a0This is now called Edinburgh Napier University. \u00a0I recall going there in the 1980s on an accreditation visitation with the Council for National Academic Awards although I remember the dinner in the George Hotel better than I do the college.<\/p>\n If you look up Edinburgh Napier University on Wikipedia<\/a> you might be puzzled to see that there's an entry for midwifery. \u00a0This says:<\/p>\n So much for Enlightenment values in their birthplace you might think. \u00a0For more on this, see Debbie Hayton<\/a>\u00a0who write sensibly and sensitively about this topic.<\/p>\nMidwifery Programme<\/span><\/h5>\n
In April of 2022, a \"Skills Workbook\", published by the university's midwifery<\/a> programme and used to educated students, was leaked to the feminist website Reduxx<\/a>. \u00a0<\/sup>The workbook dealt with catheterization<\/a>, and told students \"while most times the pregnant or birthing person will have female genitalia, you may be caring for a person who has transitioned from male to female and may therefore still have external male genitalia\".<\/h5>\n
In response to the claims made by the university's workbook, Elaine Miller, a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy<\/a>, stated: \"it is not possible for a male person to get pregnant\". Dr. Susan Bewley, Professor Emeritus<\/a> in Obstetrics and Women's Health at King's College London<\/a> called the materials \"puzzling\", and further stated \"The writers seem to have left school remarkably ignorant of basic biology, sex, and anatomy\".<\/sup><\/h5>\n