Transgender breast feeding

[TinselAngel]

I'm horrified this is being reported uncritically.

Oh and apparently it's transphobic to ask if this means men can breastfeed.

www.theguardian.com/science/2018/feb/14/transgender-woman-breastfeed-health

And questions the validity of the "academic literature" it's been published in.

(This story is definitely becoming EH Carr's Gingerbread seller...)

Tinsel Same here. I've done some serious soul-searching/ reflection and come to the conclusion that my values haven't changed at all, but the times we're living in have.

Oh and apparently it's transphobic to ask if this means men can breastfeed.

See, this really should peak a few more of those who believe in "live and let live" regarding the current trans-agenda.

If medical science has reached a point where a person with XY chromosomes is capable of breastfeeding, then why on earth should that be restricted to only those XY's who identify as women?

Although people hate the Daily Mail, their article on it included criticism that the hormones in the milk were not safe.

A woman would be told to use formula but a man, well yes if course lets help them do it at all costs, fuck the childs welfare.

Domperidone, one of the drugs used, has been implicated in heart attacks and electrolyte imbalances. It’s banned in the US and restricted in Europe because of this.

I used to buy it over the counter.

Bloodly hell. i am lost for words... Not one mention of the repercussions for the child. This individual was self medicating, risking a baby.

Is there anyway to complain to the guardian about the bias of this article and the implication of this piece of writing?

This article is the last of a series of straws for me. I’ve just cancelled my Guardian membership and told them why. Christ.

As someone who has really struggled to breastfeed, it makes me feel a bit resentful to think this person probably got so much more help than struggling biological women.

^this. I gave up after 1 week due to no help and I still feel guilty. Now people who can't actually produce breast milk naturally are being given ample attention in order to feed baby a load of chemicals. Far worse than say formula feeding which in my experience hasn't hindered the bond between me and my son one bit so being able to bond should not be a reason to pump baby full of 'fake' breast milk.

Wtf is a non transgender woman?

I thought it was transphobic to call anyone who says they are a woman anything other than a woman. I wish the people peddling this brave new world would make their minds up on the terminology. Am I transphobic for saying transgender but are they right on for saying non transgender women? Who fucking knows anymore.

"However, Reisman said the case has also attracted questions about whether men could now breastfeed. “That, implicitly, is saying that you see transgender women as cisgender men, which is transphobic,” she said."

I think this is rather dodgy ground even for the trans lobby. Why wouldn't somebody who identifies as male want to breastfeed? Isn't that rather a transphobic attitude towards trans men, particularly those who have given birth and breast fed? What about people who don't identify as any gender? What about people who identify as female but have not taken any hormones or surgery? Are they not being included in this conversation?

Back in the world of trying to feed babies, I'm sceptical that a study with so much newspeak and gaps in logic has much scientific integrity. I'd love to know what 'functional' breastfeeding means. Sounds like another way of saying that some milk was produced, but not enough to meet nutritional requirements.

What was the mother doing? What a waste of time.

www.thedailybeast.com/breastfeeding-pills-risky-results

This article is about the use of the drugs mentioned to increase breast milk production in women.

Formula sounds a more sensible option.

Domperidone makes food pass through your gi tract quicker than normal do is used to treat sickness and stomach problems.

It speeds up the contractions in your stomach and bowel to push food through faster. Ive used it for sickness and it hurts your stomach and makes you go to the toilet more often as it of course pushes food through faster.

What are massive doses of that in breast milk doing to a baby.

I get the impression that scientists did this to see if they could. Hopefully this wont become widespread as safety testing would be needed.

I think this article has been shared before and shows exactly how this can be someone indulging a fetish. It is a differrnt case than the one recently reported. He talks about how he finds breastfeeding 'validating' and that he found it sexually arousing. Grim reading.
www.thestranger.com/queer-issue-2017/2017/06/21/25225867/my-first-time-breastfeeding-my-daughter

Bloody disgusting

It's using a baby for validation

If the drugs are ever prescribed to a woman to help with breast feeding then im.sure the drs believe the joint benefits outweigh risks. Despite having been a formula feeding parent im.nit daftbwniugh to thing nutritionally if it works out breast isn't better for both mum and baby.

But this isn't about the best start. This isn't about feeding a baby.

This is about validation. The milk wluld never be the same as what the mum would have produced. It's a cocktail of drugs.

What about the mother? The whole helping the uterus to shrink back thing?

Surely this proves it's not about benefits of breastfeeding

For fucks sake..

What an absolutely ludicrous thing to do, and how utterly wrong it is of the medical establishment to encourage it. When it goes well, breastfeeding is great for mothers because it helps them to recover physically after giving birth and helps with bonding (nature's way of getting you through PND before antidepressants existed, I firmly believe). But babies bond with their carers/parents no matter how they are fed, and their parents bond with them. Formula milk is not demonic.

This is all about the trans person wanting to mimic motherhood, and not about what is best for the child, and it makes me FURIOUS that it's being reported as if breastfeeding is something that makes you a 'real' woman and an 'experience' to have like a fucking spa day when it's bloody misery for a lot of women, if they can do it in the first place.

Completely agree with you @Emyroo, was quite depressed at the erasure on show by the Tom Daley story, following on from the trans breastfeeding story, following on from the Hampstead Ladies’ Pond story ...

I find this really concerning. It's a corner turned isn't it? Transwomen don't have to be delusional 'chest-feeders' anymore. They will use this to validate their argument that the only thing that stands between them and their 'real' body is a bit of medication.

Another thing to invalidate the female body.

And where's the child in all of this? Are any of the good doctors thinking about that or just the demands of the fetishistic few (and the money that they can make from this)?

It Didn't happen.

I can summarise the paper for those who didn't read it:

Man with penis and testicles takes female hormones (and several other drugs)
Impregnates woman
Orders a galactogogue drug illegaly
Claims to be pumping and to be producing milk
Claims the pregnant soon-to-be-birth-mother doesn't want to bf
Has HIS blood levels monitored by two researchers, one a female doctor, the other a TIM nurse, both of whom are transgender focussed
Baby born
Claims he is the primary food source

Researchers write up his claims as fact with no effort to validate them

Tell me, if you were about to claim a world first, do you think you would
a. Make sure you had evidence for such a remarkable claim
b. Make sure you reported said evidence
c. Make sure you covered any controversial angles such as, oh I dunno, actual drug levels of the carcinogenic drugs in the breastmilk?

Read the paper, if you can.

It is most revealing what isn't said

I believe this baby was fed via another source and this is a complete fantasy. The researchers should be ashamed and should be challenged to provide all details regarding how they validated this claim.

It's a fraud.

One of the authors of the paper is @ZilGoldstein

Ask him some questions
See if he answers them

barraker
This story’s been around for a while now and that was my immediate natural first response ‘yeah, this didn’t happen’. For all the reasons you’ve said. Not one of the articles I’ve seen so far has been presented in anything approaching a scientific way, with evidence.

New Scientist are now reporting the story and hailing it as progression for trans-women; no mention of the fact that it could also pave the way for men who may wish to breastfeed.

@BarrackerBarmer can we prove none of it actually happened any other way than reading between the lines in the original published thing?

As I said upthread; it's becoming the death of ginger bread seller, which means it's becoming a 'historical fact' as so many are reporting it, but might not really be true, a bit like historical Chinese whispers.

I have another handy cartoon by Sandy D-B for this, which highlights the total hypocrisy of the situation.