Clinically and Culturally Competent Care for Transgender and Nonbinary People A Challenge to Providers of Perinatal Care

Transgender and nonbinary people experience high rates of discrimination and stigma in healthcare settings, which have a deleterious effect on their health and well-being. While the preventative healthcare needs of transgender and gender nonbinary people are slowly starting to make their way into nursing curriculum, there is still a very little guidance on how to appropriately and respectfully care for this population during one of the most vulnerable interactions with the healthcare system, the perinatal period. Without exposure or education, nurses are challenged on how to provide compassionate and culturally competent care to transgender and nonbinary people. The focus of this review is to provide guidance to nurses caring for transgender and gender nonbinary people during the perinatal period. Terminology and respectful language, a discussion around the decision to parent, affirming approaches to physical examination, and care during pregnancy and the postpartum period are all discussed. By increasing the number of nurses who are trained to deliver high-quality and affirming care to transgender and nonbinary patients, challenging health inequities associated with provider discrimination can be mitigated.