‘It’s a girl!’ New parents, after a long labour or at a mid-pregnancy scan, take huge joy from discovering the sex of their baby. Imagined futures fall into place as the newborn becomes a son or daughter. Relatives are told whether they have a niece or nephew, a grandson or granddaughter. These things matter. Not, for the most part, because parents have a preference, but because with the sex announced, a mystery is revealed and a new person takes his or her place in the world.

Shockingly, it seems that the NHS is intent on denying mothers and fathers this pleasure. A new patient record system, produced by a giant American IT company, Epic Systems, gives midwives the option of recording a baby’s gender identity. In other words, not whether the baby is male or female but whether it feels itself to be more masculine or feminine.

This is far worse than simply reinforcing stereotypes

In my experience as a mum of three, the best way of finding out whether my offspring were boys or girls was with a quick glance between their legs. If memory serves me correctly, this happened multiple times a day when their nappies were changed. My babies were all quite........

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