Birth Rebel Anti-discrimination Policy

Last updated: 8 October 2026

Our commitment

Racism, discrimination, harassment and abuse have no place on Birth Rebel. We take every report seriously and act on every finding. This applies to how families treat practitioners and how practitioners treat families.

Everyone who uses Birth Rebel agrees to this policy when they accept our service agreement. It forms part of the platform rules that clause 2.2 of that agreement requires both sides to follow.

Who this applies to and what it covers

This policy applies to everyone using Birth Rebel: families, practitioners, and anyone acting for Birth Rebel. It covers everything that happens through the platform, including messages, sessions, reviews and profiles.

Nobody may be treated unfairly, harassed or abused because of:

race, including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin
religion or belief
sex, sexual orientation or gender reassignment
disability
age
pregnancy and maternity
marriage or civil partnership

These are the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. We also won’t accept unfair treatment because of family structure, accent, body size or how someone chooses to feed their baby.

Examples of what’s not acceptable:

racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic or other abusive language or “jokes”
refusing to work with, or asking to swap, a practitioner because of their race, religion or another characteristic above
a practitioner refusing to support a family, or treating them differently, for the same reasons
comments or assumptions about someone’s culture, body, hair, name or accent
harassing, intimidating or threatening someone, or treating them badly because they’ve made a report

Matching on shared identity. Families can ask for a practitioner who shares their background, culture, faith or language. These requests are about cultural safety: many families, particularly from Black, Brown and other racially minoritised communities, are failed by maternity care, and a practitioner who shares their experience can help them feel safe. For example, a Black family asking for a Black doula, or a family asking for someone who speaks their language. We support these requests.

We won’t accept a request to exclude or avoid practitioners because of their race, or any other characteristic above. A request like that is itself a breach of this policy.

How to report

If you experience or see discrimination on Birth Rebel, tell us by emailing hello@birthrebel.com. You can report something that happened to you or something you saw happen to someone else. There’s no time limit: you can report however long ago it happened.

It helps to include what happened, when, and who was involved. You don’t need to have evidence ready: most communication happens on the platform, so we can review the messages ourselves.

You don’t need to raise it with the other person first, and you won’t be asked to resolve it with them yourself.

If you’re in immediate danger, call 999 first.

What happens next

We acknowledge your report within 2 working days and tell you who is handling it.
We make sure you’re safe straight away, within the same 2 working days, before anything is decided.
- If you’re a practitioner: you can pause or cancel the booking without penalty and are paid for sessions already delivered.
- If you’re a family: you can stop working with the practitioner, and we’ll rematch you with another practitioner as a priority. Any sessions you’ve paid for but not yet had are refunded. The session where it happened may also be refunded once we’ve decided (see “Refunds” below).
- Either way: you won’t be matched with that person again, and we may pause their account while we look into it.
We look into it. See “Evidence” below.
We decide within 10 working days of your report. If we need longer, for example for an independent review, we’ll tell you why and give you a new date. No decision will take longer than 20 working days.
We decide what happens. Depending on how serious it is, this can be no further action, a written warning, suspension, or permanent removal from Birth Rebel. Threats or serious abuse lead to removal straight away, and we may report them to the police.
We tell you the outcome in writing, while respecting both people’s privacy. Every outcome letter, including a decision to take no further action, tells you how to appeal to the independent reviewer.

If you disagree with any decision, including no further action or a written warning, you can ask for it to be looked at again within 14 days. Appeals are handled as set out in “Who decides” below and are answered within 10 working days.

Who decides

Birth Rebel’s founder reviews every report and makes the first decision. We’re appointing one named independent reviewer with lived experience of racism, and will name them here by 30 November 2026.

Once they’re appointed:

Any decision to suspend or remove someone, and every appeal, is also reviewed by the independent reviewer.
If a report is about Birth Rebel’s founder, the independent reviewer handles it from the start.
The independent reviewer is never connected to either person involved, and has no personal or business connection to Birth Rebel or its founder beyond this role.

Until then, Birth Rebel’s founder reviews serious decisions and appeals. Anyone unhappy with a decision made in this period can ask for it to be looked at again by the independent reviewer once they’re in place. If a report is about Birth Rebel’s founder before then, we’ll bring in an independent person to handle it.

Refunds

If we find that a practitioner discriminated against a family, and the family reported it within 7 days of the session where it happened, that session is refunded under clause 4.8 of the service agreement. The 7-day limit applies only to refunds, because it’s set by that agreement. It doesn’t limit when you can report, or what we do about it.

The family is refunded within 5 working days of our decision.
Birth Rebel’s fee on that session is refunded first, and the rest is recovered from the practitioner, as clause 4.8 allows.
If the practitioner hasn’t been paid yet, we hold back that amount from their payment.
If the practitioner has already been paid, we’ll ask them to repay it within 14 days. This applies whatever the outcome, including if they’ve been removed from Birth Rebel. If they’re still on the platform and don’t repay, their account is suspended until they do. Either way, we may recover it as a debt.

Evidence

Much of the work on Birth Rebel happens on video calls, so often there won’t be a written record of what was said. That won’t stop us acting.

Write down what happened as soon as you can: the date, time and the words used. We can help you do this if you’d like.
We ask the other person for their account too.
We also look at platform messages, anything you share with us such as notes or screenshots, and any previous reports about the same person.
We decide on the balance of probabilities: whether it’s more likely than not that it happened. You don’t need a recording or a witness.
The protections in step 2 apply as soon as you report, whatever the evidence.

Protection for people who report

No one will be treated badly for making a report in good faith, even if we can’t prove what happened.

Reporting never affects your standing on Birth Rebel. It won’t change your ratings, reviews, profile visibility, matching or future bookings.
Reviews and ratings are protected. Any review or rating the reported person leaves about you after a report is hidden while we look into it, and removed if it turns out to be retaliation.
You won’t be matched with that person again unless you ask to be.
Retaliation is treated as seriously as discrimination. This includes threats, negative reviews, or talking about the report to others to damage your reputation. It applies to anyone who has reported or helped us look into a report.

Reports are kept confidential and only shared with the people who need to know to deal with them. Knowingly making a false report is also a breach of this policy.

How this fits with our service agreement

Clause 2.2 requires families and practitioners to follow Birth Rebel’s platform rules, including this policy, and allows us to suspend accounts when they don’t.
Clause 10 covers everyday disagreements, which families and practitioners try to sort out between themselves. Discrimination is handled under this policy instead, by Birth Rebel.
Clause 10.2 asks both sides to keep going with sessions during a dispute, unless that would be unreasonable. We treat discrimination as always making it unreasonable.
Clauses 4.1 and 4.3 mean a practitioner who cancels for a valid reason isn’t penalised and is paid for sessions already delivered. A report under this policy is a valid reason.
Clause 4.8 lets Birth Rebel refund a family for a session reported within 7 days. We use it where a practitioner has discriminated against a family, recovering the cost from the practitioner’s payment as that clause allows.

Review

We’ll review this policy at least once a year, and sooner if the law changes or we learn something from a report. Next review: 28 September 2027.

Questions: hello@birthrebel.com