Decades back, I read a great retort about alleged linguistic sexism, a woman who said she had no problem at all being called the chairman of the board! Heh.
I'll gladly say I was our firstborn's midwife. The appointed midwife was just back from vacation, passed out on our couch and missed the moment. Mrs W didn't waste time when she was ready to give birth, you see. (Really. For the twins, we made it to the hospital, with ten minutes to spare before the first, and the second was ten minutes after that. Of course, she'd been carrying full-size guys for the full term, while we lived on a third-floor walkup, so you — especially you mothers! — can imagine how at that point she was quite ready to be done with that pregnancy!)
I must admit, I didn't get the Midwife script. I first said something like "it's a child," or "baby human." I was in shock and awe at the sudden appearance of a new baby human being unfolding in my hands. The late-arriving midwife began that lifetime process of gender-imprinting by informing the Mrs it was a girl.
Re the gender-neutral mentality? Taken to the extreme: David Reimer, "hailed by scientists as a triumph of nurture over nature. But as his suicide shows, this was a terrible mistake." [h/t Scott on Moonbattery]
:D
