La Leche League will support males (of the male sex) who wish to breastfeed.

[ExLLLeader]

I picked this up on a recent Facebook post and could not quite believe it so made the following complaint/query and it is true. I was a La Leche League Leader for many years and am very upset to see how the organisation has lost its focus on the Mother and baby.


Complaint To The Board of Directors/Trustees

Dear Board members,

I was alarmed to see a post yesterday on the LLLGB Facebook page. The post in celebrating Transgender awareness week. The post links to the this page which states

LLLGB supports everyone who wants to breastfeed or chestfeed in reaching their goals. We do not discriminate based on sex, gender or gender identity.

And
Trans men, trans women and non-binary individuals may choose to breastfeed or chestfeed their babies.

And
Trans women can use a protocol similar to adoptive and other non-gestational mothers and stimulate their milk supply: it is called the Newman-Goldfarb protocol.

I have two issues I wish to complain about and they relate to the idea that males/Transwomen can breastfeed.

LLLGB should not be promoting the idea that males can induce lactation to feed a baby. There is no evidence to say this is safe, only an anecdotal example of a case where a doctor in the US enabled this to happen using off label drugs. The focus of the paper is mainly on the desires of the male bodied person and there is little interest in the impact on the baby and indeed the mother. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5779241/ . I would hope you have also considered the fetishisation of breastfeeding which does not only apply to men watching women, males lactating is also a paraphilia.

Why would LLLGB of all organisations choose not to discriminate on the basis of sex as it is perfectly entitled to under the equalities act? By saying these two statements there is nothing to stop a male wishing to come to women only meetings. Even I presume, before the baby is born. Im not sure if you would require that the male considered themselves to be a woman by performing gender stereotypes or not. (The male in the study had no surgery so still had a functioning penis.) Does this entitle a male who has breastfed to apply for Leadership?

Yours Sincerely
(ExLLLeader)

--------

Dear (ExLLLeader)
Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns.
Your first concern is that there may be safety concerns relating to inducing lactation via drugs. The protocol used by Trans men is very similar to that used by women wishing to induce lactation. This treatment has an established treatment history. As lay breastfeeding counsellors, LLL Leaders role is to provide up to date and accurate information which individuals can use to inform their discussion with their healthcare provider.
Our groups have discretion to consider the needs of their communities when they decide who can attend. Some will by default be women only, however our support is and must always be open to anyone who needs support and information to breastfeed (which some individuals call chestfeeding). This would mean that a group would need to find a way to balance the needs of members who needed a single sex space, with the needs of an individual who needed chestfeeding support.
Eligibility for La Leche League Leadership is set by LLL International and can be found here: www.llli.org/get-involved/prerequisites/
As an organisation with a robust safeguarding culture, if we had concerns about an individual's motivation for seeking breastfeeding support we would take appropriate action to protect families and babies.
Best wishes (LLL Trustee)
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Dear (LLL Trustee)
Thank you for your reply, I have copied my complaint below as I was raising concerns about the male sex – i.e. Transwomen and breastfeeding and you have answered as if my concern is about female sexed i.e. trans men.

Best wishes (ExLLLeader)

Dear (ExLLLeader)
My apologies - I used the wrong word there. I should have said the protocol used by transwomen wishing to induce lactation is very similar to that used by women. The rest of my reply is intended to answer your points as raised.
(LLL Trustee)
__
Dear (LLL Trustee)
I am surprised to hear this. Would you therefor support a ‘Cis” man to breastfeed and provide the nutrients for a newborn baby?
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Not had an answer

[HecatesCats]

Well this is where you end up when you pretend men's f*s are progressive. Why on earth would a transwoman need to breastfeed a baby?

[StillAFeminist]

They are a charity and this really looks like it conflicts with their mission, suggest you make a report to the charity commission

[Whatwouldscullydo]

Its the logical conclusion isn't it ?

How is it that pregnant women cant even buy OTC mess without being questioned but this is ok?

Surely when women are given meds to help with milk production its weighed up against the benefits of the breastfeeding to the child. The anti bodies the bonding the nutrition etc

That can't be applicable to a male taking the same drugs.

[Smallsteps88]

Why did you use “cis” and not just man? It implies you buy into the Idea that non trans = cis.

[HecatesCats]

I mean this isn't happening for the benefit of babies is it.

[StillAFeminist]

Specifically part of their mission is about what’s best for baby and drug induced lactation on males without any controlled studies on impact on baby is very much not what’s best for baby

[ExLLLeader]

Just had the response to my last email to them:

As lay breastfeeding counsellors, our role is to support the 'normal course of breastfeeding'. That's not using normal as a value judgement, but as a recognition of how things will go for most people. When something veers into medical or healthcare territory our responsibility is to provide accurate and current information and refer onwards, both to stay within our scope of practice, and to ensure that person gets the support they need.

We do regularly hear from dads. They contact us wanting information about supporting their partner to breastfeed, and to know more about life with a new baby. Many find this information useful: www.laleche.org.uk/supporting-a-breastfeeding-mother/

Any more unusual or complex requests are considered as they come in. As I'm sure you can understand, our volunteer time is precious and while we want to be prepared to respond to more unusual enquiries, we also need to focus our time on our core work of supporting mothers to meet their breastfeeding goals.

[ExLLLeader]

@Smallsteps88

Why did you use “cis” and not just man? It implies you buy into the Idea that non trans = cis.

I didn't rally want to , The language was just so muddled

[Whatwouldscullydo]

That's an awfully long winded way of telling you they cant answer your question and will longer waste tine talking to you...

[Doyoumind]

If they deal with things as they come in, why are they out there promoting their services to TW wanting to feed.

It's an absolute load of bollocks. There is no need whatsoever for a TW to breastfeed and I honestly would question the motivation.

[HecatesCats]

We had the time to wang on earning woke points on social, but we don't have the time to justify what we said.

[TherapistInATabard]

Yep, they’ve jumped on the bandwagon to appear supportive and inclusive but can’t admit that and can’t respond to scrutiny. Well done OP.

[Whatwouldscullydo]

If they deal with things as they come in, why are they out there promoting their services to TW wanting to feed

Well it did "just" come in and they aren't dealing with it

[SophocIestheFox]

@StillAFeminist

Specifically part of their mission is about what’s best for baby and drug induced lactation on males without any controlled studies on impact on baby is very much not what’s best for baby

Absolutely, and there could never be trial that would get past an ethics committee to prove/disprove it- and rightly so.

[Redshoeblueshoe]

I'm already blocked by them on Twitter, for commenting on the last load of crap they spouted.

[ExLLLeader]

@StillAFeminist

Specifically part of their mission is about what’s best for baby and drug induced lactation on males without any controlled studies on impact on baby is very much not what’s best for baby

Very good point, thank you

[ExLLLeader]

@Redshoeblueshoe

I'm already blocked by them on Twitter, for commenting on the last load of crap they spouted.

Was that along the same lines?

[ExLLLeader]

Also I have always been insistent that LLL and others are listed in information for mothers. Now I would actively say they should not as they are giving non evidenced based advice which could undermine the money and infant relationship. what a sad turnaround.

[LizzieSiddal]

My apologies - I used the wrong word there.

Im not sure I believe this for a minute. I think they genuinely have not considered that Trans women would want to feed.

[buckeejit]

Good on you OP. This is utter shit. There's nothing sacred!

[MammothMashup]

Bloody hell.

[Winesalot]

The approach for this, I feel, is to ask if they are advocating for males, however that male identifies, to artificially lactate to feed infants. And exactly where is the research into the nutritional value comparison data, particularly in the first few weeks of the infant’s life.

I can see a litigious future ahead here if they start allowing males with particular interest in breastfeeding to become leaders and advisors etc. (obviously I don’t want to be deleted here).

[Winesalot]

I think they genuinely have not considered that Trans women would want to feed.

I think they have not considered why a transwoman wants to feed.

A cocktail derived liquid that may be laden with hormones being fed to a fast developing human.... what can go wrong here. I didn’t drink alcohol for 18 months during pregnancy and bf’ing because I was worried about FAS. what chemicals and hormones are being delivered to these infants?

[nepeta]

I checked and the US La Leche League doesn't mention sex in their inclusiveness policies, but the advice for trans and nonbinary parents approves of breastfeeding by biological males because the process of inducing milk production is no different from what adoptive parents would use. Do women who have adopted a baby induce breast feeding? I have never heard about this.

Age is also included as one of the characters they are inclusive about. I don't know if that means they encourage eighty-year old people to induce milk production or if it is just about the average age of the parents in the family.

This is most likely virtue-signalling. It costs nothing as a policy to say all those things.

[nepeta]

@LizzieSiddal

My apologies - I used the wrong word there.

Im not sure I believe this for a minute. I think they genuinely have not considered that Trans women would want to feed.

But they have, at least on the US site. They specifically support it.