For many women, childbirth is the most frightening experience of their lives. Credit:iStock The nursing and midwifery board, he reported, from March 1 this year, will insist their members acknowledge their "white privilege" when their patients demand it. "That's right, if during your birth procedure you feel culturally vulnerable (or even if you don't) you can insist that your midwife acknowledge their white privilege," he wrote to his supporters. "Now, that might be a problem if your midwife doesn't actually identify as a white person, even if she is one. After all, everyone can now be whatever they want and the rest of us have to appease these self-indulgent fantasists." Then Bernardi went on to deliver such a fine example of mansplaining, it should get its own entry in the dictionary.

"Having a baby hasn't really changed over generations," he told us. If you are a woman of child-bearing age, you might want to grab a pen here to take notes. "It can be painful, difficult, sometimes dangerous but it is entirely necessary for our species to continue." You can see how Bernardi has developed his reputation for daring to tell the uncomfortable truth: this stuff is red hot. Bernardi went on to deliver such a fine example of mansplaining, it should get its own entry in the dictionary.

But he hasn't finished – Dr Bernardi is still in the house. "It's the same process for every woman regardless of race, creed or colour," he continued. "Through time immemorial, others have been there to assist in bringing new life into the world and no-one had to acknowledge white privilege ... until March 2018." Bernardi's anecdote is very misleading, and he seems to have done zero fact-checking, but it does contain a kernel of truth. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia recently reviewed its codes of conduct for nurses and midwives, and refined the codes to include special provisions relating to "cultural safety".

Within the definition on cultural safety, there is a sentence about "acknowledging white privilege". At no point are nurses or midwives compelled to acknowledge their "white privilege" to patients. "Cultural safety" is a term for the practice of ensuring that respect for people's different cultures is built into the provision of public services like health and education. Is it damnably politically correct? Perhaps. But given the historical trampling of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in this country, I am OK with people from the caring professions paying special attention to the comfort of their most disadvantaged patients.

I am particularly OK with nurses and midwives catering to the special needs of Aboriginal patients when they are experiencing what is for many women the most frightening event of their lives and one that leaves them most vulnerable – childbirth. Bernardi's blithe assertion that birth "is the same process for every woman regardless of race, creed, or colour" is utter garbage, and does nothing except advertise his arrogance. It would be funny, were it not for the fact that his party is set to contest 20 lower house seats in the upcoming South Australian elections, and is vying against One Nation for space on the expanding right fringe of the political landscape. To state one obvious example, until relatively recently, childbirth, for thousands of Aboriginal women, was followed by the removal of their babies. In this sense the experience of childbirth has historically been categorically, traumatically different for many Aboriginal women. For contemporary Indigenous women from remote areas, childbirth may be the first time they have entered the clinical environment of a hospital, says Colleen Gibbs, of the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives.

In some cases they are thousands of kilometres from their home and people, and may not speak English fluently. For such women giving birth in a hospital environment could easily be terrifying. On nearly every register of health, Aboriginal people have worse outcomes and are much more susceptible to chronic disease than non-Aboriginal Australians. Ask any health practitioner and they will tell you a great challenge is getting Aboriginal people to engage with the healthcare system at all. Aboriginal people often fear they will be stereotyped by doctors, or blamed for causing their own problems with their "lifestyle". If the practice of "cultural safety" mitigates institutional racism, and makes the process of giving birth less scary for indigenous women, let's have more of it. You could call it political correctness gone mad. You could call it, as Bernardi does, "catering to others' self-declared victimhood". Or you could just characterise it as the nation's most dedicated and underpaid healthcare workers paying attention to the unique needs of their patients.

But that sounds too much like common sense to make Bernardi's newsletter. Loading Twitter: @JacquelineMaley Follow Jacqueline Maley on Facebook