To be offended by the term ‘Chestfeeding’

[Coco2891]

The Breastfeeding Network (UK) has just shared an article on Facebook from Kellymom about trans people and the term ‘chestfeeding’ and that people should be asked what they would like it reffered to as by their health visitor-having not read a lot about the trans movement I am a bit behind on it all but this term has really got up my nose ! I’m tired and hormonal btw so any other day it may not have bothered me enough to post on the internt about it 🙄

Sounds like a load of bollocks to me.
Where do we draw the line on it all?

Calling it chest feeding is saying that to include transmen we must obsfucste the female biology , pretend it doesn’t exist. I have chest muscle and breast tissue, the milk came from the breast tissue.

Pretending the female biology doesn’t exist Is denying the reality of women as a biological experiance and is pretty threatening to me. I also may be hormonal.

Men can't give birth. Men don't have a uterus. Only women do. Biology and biological and medical terms, trumps a woman who wants to be offended by those medical and biological terms. It's breastfeeding. It's birth through a vagina, and females only can carry babies. This pandering and obsession with pandering to the minority's needs to stop.

I can’t really get worked up about stuff like this, I’m far too tired from being kept up all night breastfeeding! I just ignore all this rubbish, we all know you need to be a woman to have babies and to have breasts to breastfeed. Just ignore it all and get on with your day.

Absurd, women have breasts that are used to feed babies. If an individual wants their HCP to refer to chestfeeding to them on an individual basis that is fine, but to change the whole literature to suit a minority is stupid, and just reduces women to their body parts and function, instead of living human beings.

I am sure most normal people can cope with the horror of a HCP saying "do you prefer chest feeding or breast feeding? Excellent, breast feeding it is"

I have no problem with someone being asked what their preferred terminology is and then using that. It's respectful to the person.

However there is a push, by very influential groups, to get the government to start referring to officially to women specific health issues as body parts as the language is not inclusive.... cervix havers, pregnant people, people with a uterus etc etc. This is real and it's going on right now. And its horrifying.....

I was a specialist nurse for many years. My personal practice was always to treat people and not diagnosis or test results.

Health visitors are there to offer professional advice and support to the women who are breastfeeding, not their chests.

Although this is something of a tongue-in-cheek comment, my point is actually a serious one. Post-partum women need holistic assessment and care, supporting them in their role as new mothers. Using language like chest feeders undermines mothers. Deliberately.

Mothering is much more than a series of tasks and It is performed by Women, not body parts.

Ridiculous.

'menstruators' 'bleeders' - which sounds remarkably similar to 'breeders'.

It’s ridiculous. Laughably so. Men can’t breastfeed, whether they’re wearing a dress or not. They can’t breastfeed even if they’ve had surgery. So they can call it what they like, but they can’t do it. Madness. One day I think we’ll look back at this crazy trans rubbish and laugh at the insanity that reigned .

Is a trans man has had a mastectomy then are they still able to breastfeed? I would have assumed not. And therefore if they have not had a mastectomy they would still have breasts? So therefore breastfeeding is accurate. Or am I missing something?

And actually I would object to someone asking me what terminology I preferred. Asking if I prefer Minty or Mrs Choc - that’s fine. Asking something utterly pointless like breast or chest feeding, it’s insulting to those of us who have actual breasts (ie woman - you know, the only people who can have babies and breastfeed them - not just men wearing make up and playing dress-up). And it’s a waste of time too, something which HCPs don’t have much of.

People wonder why the younger generations, some of them, are snowflakes.

If you feed your baby using your breasts you are breast feeding. Chest feeding is a load of bollocks and I'm surprised the professionally offended haven't used the excuse that breasts are also sexual to try and change the way a woman feeds her baby is named to chest feeding.

We are uterus owners, cervix owners and pregnant people now

I have neither a uterus nor a cervix. Obviously no longer able to get pregnant. Does that mean I'm a man?

Of course it doesn't. Agree with the poster above who said that if a transman gets pregnant (which would appear unlikely if that person is so hugely uncomfortable with the idea of a female body that they decide to present as a man instead) then all that's needed is for the midwife to ask what terms they'd prefer to use.

But for the other 99.99999999% of pregnant WOMEN the term is breastfeeding.

As I understand this stupidity, the term chestfeeding has been coined by women who want to live as men but have nothing removed, while giving birth and breastfeeding as only women can.

How can anyone profess to have body dysphoria and think they're a really man in a woman's body and then give birth and expect to be taken seriously. It's laughable.

Surely I'm not the only one who can see the hypocrisy that very scenario brings forth.

The other thing to add is that many trans activists maintain that even being asked which term is preferred - breast or chest feeding - is exclusionary, because women wouldn't be asked that question, therefore it's transpeople being treated differently and that's literal violence, etc. So it's not as easy as us saying "just ask the question and move on". Many TRAs don't even want the question asked, ever - just a shift to using chestfeeding in all cases as it's more "inclusive".

Somebody better tweet the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers and tell them they need to change their name to the Association of Chestfeeding Uterus-Havers.

Women aren't being asked if they want this terminology. They're being told they have to accept it or they're bigots.

What really annoys me is the simultaneous wanting-to-make-it-all-seem-so-normal while at the same time wanting-to-be-special. I remember that just a year or so ago one of the tabloid front pages blaring about The First Pregnant Man in The UK. Of course, on reading the story it turned out it was an 18-year-old girl who had temporarily come off male hormones in order to have a baby.

So...if it's that rare that it makes headlines, why does every other woman in the world have to lose her identity so that a transman doesn't get upset? Women are just shit as far as society is concerned.

@piperpublick I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t already getting pressure from groups to change their language.

I think midwives and health visitors have more to be doing than having to add an extra question/box to their already very busy schedules. The term for feeding your baby is breastfeeding. This is the correct term, the baseline if you like. If someone is offended by this they simply need to say so and it can be marked on their records. It's really very simple.

YANBU. I don’t understand why language describing women’s bodies has to be censored to make transgender people happy. What about us? It’s a step backwards.

They’re just asking what you prefer. If you don’t like the term chestfeeding don’t use it. Surely it’s that simple? Whether you like it or not some trans people have kids, and they’re entitled to have their preferences met just as you are. It kind of sounds like you’re offended about other people being treated with the same respect as you, and that is really unreasonable.