Hospital Infant Feeding Network - LGBTQI advice

Rest assured, an increasing number of influential lactational consultants in the LLL U.K. are very critical of this erasure of women and twisting of language.

They're tentatively speaking out, those who can, sadly an awful lot of pro bf mega slinging types are SJW and it's all be kind, suicide, blah blah.

There's enough of us lentil weavers who get it though

I went down this rabbit hole not long ago. For a male to produce milk there needs to be a significant drug regime. And the milk has a different nutrient composition that is not nutritious enough by itself.

This hasn’t been researched enough in my opinion. are these drugs being passed in the milk.

I also read one transwoman’s account and the comment was something like ‘no women talk about the sexual pleasure you get from a baby suckling your nipple’. Obviously, not all transwomen would be like this I would hope. However, comments in this light make me question is there a line being crossed here?

I would imagine if having their breasts called breasts would be so triggering for a trans man then they would not be having a baby in the first place, that would have to be incredibly triggering, the whole process is as ‘female’ as you’re going to get.

Exactly.

Followers of this thread might be interested in the Full Cream blog/ fb page. She’s a rad fem who writes about birth, breastfeeding, etc from a feminist perspective. I think I found her through this board but she doesn’t have many followers yet.

Why are babies suddenly seen as experiments for the trans community and their advocates?

We as women are drilled in about not taking this medication, don’t take that medication, avoid this food etc for the safety of the babies.

Yet they are immediately bending over backwards handing out hormones left right and centre so that these female experiences can be achieved by anyone...at the risk of the babies they are so desperate to have

I would imagine if having their breasts called breasts would be so triggering for a trans man then they would not be having a baby in the first place, that would have to be incredibly triggering, the whole process is as ‘female’ as you’re going to get.

When post natal wards are so understaffed that women press the buzzer in the night and no one comes to help them feed their baby, (you know, with their uniquely adapted colostrum for their own baby) and new mothers are often discharged from hospital rapidly and not confident in their milk supply or latch, I just can’t see how faffing about trying to produce artificial lactation in another person is the best use of time or resources, when there’s no clear benefit for the baby at all.

What worries me is the false hope this provides for young trans men and women - “Don’t worry, even if you transition medically it won’t affect your ability to have children, and more than that, as a trans man or woman you can still take the role of your chosen gender!”

La Leche league was always a bunch of swivel eyed zealots. It's laughable really that formula ( safely used for billions of babies) is viewed with such contempt by them but they are happy to advocate large doses of hormones to produce milk in a parent other than the mother.

In answer to that question, it may help transmen who are breastfeeding their infants if support organisations and providers know that they may use the term 'chestfeeding'. And that helps the mother/baby dyad in those vanishingly small number of cases.

The inaccurate language does not help other mother and baby dyads.

The question is 'how are such practices helping the baby?'

Is there an actual question here?

It’s so weird. ‘Chest’ refers to the cavity beneath the breasts (ie ‘chest infection’) and both men and women can get breast cancer, so why can’t they just use breastfeeding, regardless of how the breast-owner identifies?

As for inducing lactation with medication, well, I did that for a bit because my youngest had both a tongue tie and milk protein allergy, so it was important she be fed human milk, but couldn’t get my supply going adequately by herself.

It was a massive hoo-ha as the drug used (domperidone) isn’t licensed for this purpose and you have to take about ten times the normal dose and even the usual dose can result in heart problems (for the mother, only traces get through to the milk). Doctors are reluctant to prescribe and you can only take it for a short time period - you have to also pump and preferably use an at breast nursing supplement device so that you can get to drug-free feeding ASAP.

It’s pretty controversial and not worth the risks if you are unlikely to be able to wean yourself off it fast and breastfeed successfully for an extended period after.

I didn’t take any other regular meds whilst on it (and remember a row with a pharmacist over anti biotics for an ear infection - they wanted me to pump and dump for the duration of the course, despite the GP specifically choosing that one because it was also prescribed to infants and thus deemed safe). It’s unbelievable to me that breast feeding support professionals are now publishing materials that actively encourage non-mothers to take risks, that I, a post-partum woman was warned against just 8 years ago - and that was in the context of tangible long-term benefit to the baby. This is purely about the adult.

Groo.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domperidone

We don't feed our babies from our chests. Babies are fed from breasts, whether their mother is straight or lesbian.

This regressive, anti-mother language, which is also inaccurate, doesn't help gay, lesbian or bi breastfeeding mothers.

Transmen who are comfortable enough to gestate, give birth and breastfeed a baby are welcome to call what they do 'chestfeeding' in their own family, but it's breastfeeding, and women do it with their breasts.