AIBU to want to throw up every time I come across the word "chestfeeding"?

[surrealpotato]

Whenever I look for breastfeeding advice online, inevitably half the websites in the results, especially the top few, will use the term "chest feeding", sometimes avoiding he phrase "breastfeeding mother", or even the word "mother" completely. I find this language so dehumanising and gaslighting, but it seems that even some of the more otherwise respectable organisations, like La Leche League, are now adopting this language. I know I'm not being unreasonable. But AIBU?

This may need a content warning, so be warned this link show males talking about the amazing electric charge they get from infants feeding from their nipples amongst other things.

https://www.them.us/story/trans-women-breastfeed

This is an illuminating read and shows insight into the motivations for these male people who seek to do this.

What is very clear, is that this is NEVER about the child. This is never child centred. This is all about the male person's demands being met.

YANBU at all, I find that phrase utterly repulsive. Surely it must be <0.1% of women who breastfeed who identify as trans men. And that dehumanising language is being forced on the breastfeeding mothers, many of whom experience creepy men staring and now we can’t even call it what it really is.

No male breast secretion has been thoroughly tested for chemical interactions from the drug regimes that are used specifically for male bodies for any prescription. Nor any combination of testosterone and other drug interactions on that secretion.

These articles contain lists of the studies that have been done :

https://theparadoxinstitute.org/read/the-ugly-truth-of-male-breastfeeding

https://lascapigliata.com/2023/07/03/case-study-2-experiment-of-induced-lactation-in-a-trans-identifying-male-excerpt-from-born-in-the-right-body/

None of those studies have adequately tested the chemical interactions.

Another recent case study.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13006-024-00624-1

Case presentation

In this case a 37-year-old transgender woman, who was under the care of the centre of expertise on gender dysphoria in Amsterdam, and in 2020 started lactation induction because she had the wish to breastfeed her future infant. She was in a relationship with a cisgender woman and had been using gender affirming hormone therapy for 13 years. Prior to initiating gender affirming hormone therapy she had cryopreserved her semen. Her partner conceived through Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, using our patient’s cryopreserved sperm.

To induce lactation, we implemented a hormone-regimen to mimic pregnancy, using estradiol and progesterone, and a galactogogue; domperidone. Our patient started pumping during treatment. Dosage of progesterone and estradiol were significantly decreased approximately one month before childbirth to mimic delivery and pumping was increased.

Our patient started lactating and although the production of milk was low, it was sufficient for supplementary feeding and a positive experience for our patient.

Two weeks after birth, lactation induction was discontinued due to suckling problems of the infant and low milk production.

Conclusions
This case report underlined that lactation induction protocols commonly used for cisgender women are also effective in transgender women. However, the amount of milk produced may not be sufficient for exclusive nursing.

Nevertheless, success of induced lactation may be attributed to its importance for parent-infant bonding, rather than the possibility of exclusive chestfeeding.

As if to demonstrate how depraved this whole scenario is, Pink News celebrates a man who has an OnlyFans account so other man can pay to watch him "breastfeeding":

Archived to avoid giving clicks to PN:

Yes, trans women can breastfeed too. Here’s why it’s safe, healthy and good for both mum and baby

Feb 19 2024
https://archive.is/JkniV

Novel Lactation Induction Protocol for a Transgender Woman Wishing to Breastfeed: A Case Report

Esme D. Trahair, Sarah Kokosa, Andy Weinhold, Heather Parnell, Andrea B. Dotson, and Carly E. Kelley

27 March 2024

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/bfm.2024.0012

Background: Lactation induction in transgender women is a clinical and research priority in the field of breastfeeding medicine. To date, there are four case reports detailing successful induced lactation in transgender patients who wished to breastfeed. The Academy of Breast Feeding Medicine does not formally recommend a specific medication regimen for transgender patients due to lack of high-quality research.

Case Presentation: A 50-year-old transgender woman with a hypercoagulable disorder who was able to lactate and breastfeed with novel hormone regimen management at a gender care clinic. Her baseline hormone treatment was an estradiol 0.3 mg transdermal patch every 72 hours and micronized progesterone 200 mg daily.

Results: Within four weeks of initiating a modified hormone regimen (estradiol 0.4 mg patch every 72 hours, progesterone 300 mg daily, metoclopramide 10 mg three times daily), the patient was lactating spontaneously. On multiple occasions, she breastfed and expressed up to 30 mL of milk through pumping.
Conclusion: This report offers a new effective hormone regimen for transgender patients who wish to lactate and cannot access domperidone—the galactagogue used in previous case reports. It also provides a review of previously published case reports on this subject. Future research in this field should prioritize cohort studies of transgender patients who desire lactation to further assess patient attitudes, experiences, and outcomes.

Some more background on this:
https://x.com/millihill/status/1773343604678758886?s=200

The patient first expressed the unique desire to breastfeed her expected grandchild at an appointment with her endocrinologist in the spring of 2022. She disclosed that this was a last-minute idea that came to her very close to her daughter's due date. Her primary motivation for inducing lactation was to experience the bond from breastfeeding that she had not been able to experience with her own five children.
**
Remember, by 7 days old an infant requires 65 ml per day.

https://www.babycentre.co.uk/x553873/how-much-milk-does-my-baby-need-in-the-first-few-days

Plus this male person was given

metoclopramide 10 mg three times daily.

So, there seems to be something going on here with this 'case'. How come this male person was permitted to feed an infant while on this drug when women are told to avoid it when breastfeeding..... it really doesn't seem that the endocrinologist put this infant first at all.

https://bnf.nice.org.uk/drugs/metoclopramide-hydrochloride/

Just adding this because it seems relevant to this discussion.
Further proof that there is lactation fetishists out there.

Page 46 of the WPATH leaked files report.

'In fact, within all the files, the sole instance where WPATH members express concern regarding the potential dangers and adverse effects of a medical procedure is found in a conversation involving a trans-identified natal male interested in hormone-induced lactation purely for the sake of experiencing it, with no intention of nursing an infant. From the information given, the patient appears to be otherwise mentally well, but his doctor described having ethical issues with this request, as it was not without some risk.'

'The replies echoed the doctor’s concerns, with one doctor calling the request unethical because it was a “medical intervention that is not necessary” and a San Francisco ethicist calling the reason for the intervention “questionable.”'

At least some medical professionals are recognising that there is 'some risk' involved with this treatment which is in NO way life saving and purely about satisfying a male's demand.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56a45d683b0be33df885def6/t/65e64b9e5cbd756da9fbbdfa/1709591479160/Final+WPATH+Report.pdf

🤢🤮 poor babies. Feels like child abuse.

Medical ethics seem to have vanished when it comes to trans women 'chest-feeding'. What consideration has been given to the long-term impact on the 'chest-fed' babies of the traces of drugs they are injecting? Then there's the trauma of discovering as a teenager or adult that you were 'chest-fed' by a person born male.

I'm not sure I have the stomach for that one 🤢

It's amazing that women are given strict guidelines about what they can and cannot consume while breastfeeding and judged harshly by society if they digress from that...yet mentally ill men who try to feed babies the drug induced pus that leaks from their nipples for their own pleasure get articles written praising and encouraging them. One of the many warped faces of misogyny.

Would always recommend the Breastfeeding Network website/hotline for advice! They use the terms ‘breastfeeding’ and ‘mothers’ still ❤️

Yep. I’m a breastfeeding peer supporter who trained through a major UK breastfeeding charity. I cannot stand any of this. I would like to cancel my membership out of principle. But without my membership I am not insured to peer support and this would be just further reducing the support available for the actual women who need it.

Some women who have given birth, but identify as male, do not like being called mothers, and would say they don’t have breasts. But I’m sure it is a minority, and personally I have never seen it called chest feeding anywhere apart from when it is quoted on places like MN and FB

I'm sure there are others in your field who feel the same way.

my breastfeeding group has breast in the name. Definitely one of its many selling points

Babies are just bits of equipment to these men. Like the women they use as an unconsenting audience when they trespass in women’s spaces. No human connection, let alone any respect or empathy.

So why would someone identifying as male do one of the most female things possible? And then get upset at words used to describe the processes.

You're not wrong OP. One of the many offensive aspects of the gender cult.

Surely this liquid is not the nourishing breastmilk that women naturally produce . It is well known that breastmilk adjusts the needs of the child .

It's gross and unnecessary as is the term 'human milk'. Women breastfeed their babies breastmilk, it's as simple as that.

Why is it not relevant that intersex people exist?
Personally I dont care what terms are used. I think in medical settings things do need to be inclusive because everyone does need to be included in the medical care. They are trying to lok after people not make some sort of moral point. There may be people who do not identify as women (such as trans men or non binary people or intersex people) who also feed their babies this way
They may not access help when needed due to not realising they will be treated with respect by the medical professionals.
I work in healthare and it doesn't matter your own personal views on something. What matters is that you reach ALL the people who need reaching for your service.
Personally I would use both terms (breast feeding and chestfeeding) so that it covers all bases.
I know what its like on this site so I know im going to get backlash for saying this but using terms like this is not dehumanising anyone. I've breastfed 3 children. You can call it breastfeeding.. but be aware not everyone calls it that and on NHS leaflets etc they may use other terms so everyone feels included.
I dont think you must have much on in your life if you can get this riled up about the wording used in a leaflet.

Rather than trying to abuse their body for being somehow wrong, they should be trying to embrace the ways it which it is right. Rather than ashamed of their body’s femininity, they could learn to appreciate it.

I'd also like to add that I have never anywhere seen just 'chestfeeding' used.
I've seen it alongside breastfeeding but never in place of.

Yanbu.

And any man, delusional or otherwise, that would subject a baby to this frankenstein 'I can't believe it's not milk' is either a pedo or an abusive parent.

No decent father would put his baby's health below getting his kicks or validation.

And the women who claim they are men, while happily doing something that 100% confirms they are a woman, are just attention seeking bellends, completely lacking the emotional maturity needed to be a parent.

Every human being that lives, has lived or will live, was birthed by a woman.