‘Surely having a baby challenges your very masculinity’: 21 males have given birth in Australia in the last year

A leading academic says despite male pregnancy conflicting with our established binary stereotypes, it’s not unnatural.

According to Medicare, 21 men have given birth in Australia in the past year.

In the past decade, 288 children have been born to men.

Senior Lecturer of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Dr Lauren Rosewarne, told 3AW Mornings it does “confront some the conceptions we have around pregnancy, parenting and child birth”.

“These are people who are born with what we would consider female anatomy and they have gone through a sex change,” said Dr Rosewarne.

“They may not have necessarily had an operation, but they now identify as male.

“For them, they consider their entire identity wrapped up in the identity of a male, therefore they refer as males.”

Neil Mitchell questioned whether “having a baby challenges your very masculinity”.

“Masculinity means different things to different males,” Dr Rosewarne said.

“In this case, gender is something that is thought about in less binary terms than most of us.

“It is something culturally we have to think more about and it’s jarring for some people.

“Jarring is not a bad thing, we all have to adjust our way of thinking.”

“It’s not just about what ‘bits’ you have.”

Click PLAY below to listen to the interview with Dr Lauren Rosewarne