Transgender breast / chest feeding

[334bu]

Is this really what the National Hospital Infant Feedin Network should be promoting?
mobile.twitter.com/HIFN12/status/1275353652266295296

Surely they should be making breastfeeding as easy and accessible as possible to all parents, regardless of their gender identity? I don't see the issue here, this seems like a good thing.

When supporting LGBTQ families, don't make assumptions about which parent is breastfeeding/chestfeeding (or that only one parent is doing so)

No, don't make any assumptions. Ask them what they're doing. Ask them if they have any preferences about the baby-feeding terminology you use.

No, don't make any assumptions that all non-heteronormative parents are so up their own behinds that they are oblivious to reality.

Most breast feeding mother's avoid anything harmful that might transfer to their child and we are encouraged to do this as our child's well being us paramount. The passing on of unnecessary medication/ hormones etc would seem to contradict all best practice.

I really don't mind who does breastfeeding, but I don't understand why 'breast' isn't a neutral word.

Men wear double and single breasted suits.

They seem to be adding connotations to a word that aren't necessary.

Both men and women have chests and breasts, but in a medical context 'chest' often refers to your lungs.

Chestfeeding does not describe a baby being fed by them suckling milk out of the mammary gland that produces it.

OTOH if a person - female or male - feeds a baby through a supplementer, which allows the baby to be fed at the breast, without actually breastfeeding, it seems perfectly reasonable to describe this as 'chestfeeding'

The passing on of unnecessary medication/ hormones etc would seem to contradict all best practice.

Plenty of people take medication while breastfeeding, i am one of them. You'd likely deem it "unnecessary" as it's not life or death, but my doctors are completely happy for me to be on it, and feeding my baby. I think we can safely assume that doctors would not be prescribing medication that would harm infants to parents wishing to breastfeed. I'm sure the professionals involved have a much better grasp of the science than we do!

As someone who nurses I have no problem with the term chest feeding if it helps a trans man to continue nursing their child, I would be furious if they tried to change my language to call what I do chest feeding.

I am presuming a trans man would stop hormones whilst nursing their child though and the entire conversation becomes one of ethics if they dont.

Breastfeeding is a function of female biology, not gender identity. I think conflating the two is ignorant / ingenuous or something I am not at liberty to state on here. Oh and I am deeply unimpressed to see a support group promoting hormonally/pharmaceutically assisted breastfeeding.

Sorry I chopped off a dis:
disingenuous.

Purely commenting on the medication aspect- I'm a lactation consultant and frequently support women with low supply to increase it with medication. It is very effective for some people and completely safe. I do not agree with "induced lactation" protocols in transwomen because it's pointless and they only ever produce a tiny supply (not to mention it's weird). However I think it's very dangerous to start saying that women shouldn't be taking medications during breastfeeding, when most are totally safe. It's the kind of attitude that either leads to women stopping BF before they want to.

In the tweet it says or at least implies that someone other than the mother of the child might breastfeed the infant by artificially stimulating lactation. Of course mothers with pre-existing conditions will have to continue taking medications while breastfeeding but this is different , here another person is artificially inducing lactation.

I personally don’t see an issue with this.

@334bu

In the tweet it says or at least implies that someone other than the mother of the child might breastfeed the infant by artificially stimulating lactation. Of course mothers with pre-existing conditions will have to continue taking medications while breastfeeding but this is different , here another person is artificially inducing lactation.

I know adoptive mothers have done this to be able to feed their adopted babies.

I still don't understand why that's a problem. I highly doubt the medical profession would be facilitating this if it was harmful.

People go on and on about how "breast is best" and then the other side say "it doesnt matter how a baby is fed as long as it's fed" - surely this ticks both boxes?

Many cis women end up taking medication to stimulate lactation. Are you frothing about them too?

Fuck off with cis it's hot

Funny how quickly organisations abandon the needs and rights of a child when there's an adult male demanding access to something that only women do.
If trans men have babies and wish to call the act of breast feeding, chest feeding then they can crack on. But to wholesale eradicate the language of pregnancy, the language of women's bodies and the needs of babies and children in order to pander to the demands of a miniscule group in the population is dangerous to children and othering of women.

Many cis women end up taking medication to stimulate lactation. Are you frothing about them too?

Not frothing about medication.

I am offended at your use of the term 'cis' which implies identification with the cultural expectations of femininity that have deprived women of basic human rights e.g. the right to education.

Try reading the thread SomeoneElseEntirelyNow People are explaining clearly why using medication to artificially stimulate men to breastfeed without any research into the impact on babies is unethical.
Decent societies do NOT experiment on babies just because a small group of men demand it

A baby having to ingest artifical hormones or any other shit solely because an adult's need for validation is coming before the best interests of an infant, is absolutely grim.

@truth i have RTFT and I haven't seen any evidence at all that there hasn't been any research done into this. It's not uncommon to hormonally stimulate lactation, and it wouldn't be done if it was harmful to the baby.

Hold up women who are biological parents are given medication to induce lactation, adoptive women are given medication to lactate. Are you against all medication for lactation or just in this situation.

Sorry I mean “can be” rather than “are”.

Want there a paper ( I use that term loosely) from America that talked of a trans identified man undergoing a regimen of drugs in order to produce milk? I'm not sure if he had to take 10 or 100 times more than recommended for women and he produced a small amount while also talking about how thrilling the experience was. At no point did anybody register concern about what that high a drug dosage may do to the baby out of it is ethically right for a man to intentionally induce lactation knowing he will be sexually excited by feeding a baby.

Trans men doing one of the most cis thing a woman can do... I think breast is fine. You hold a baby to the breast even when supplementing. We all know what they’re really doing.

"I'm sure the professionals involved have a much better grasp of the science than we do!"

I can hear Dolores Umbrage doing a tinkly little laugh here.

I don't think the professionals do know. There have been no studies on effects of cross sex hormones on babies who have been fed by mothers taking T. We know that T is highly toxic to foetuses.

I can find one quoted example which states 'The study participant explained that he made an informed choice under the guidance of his physician, and that his child’s pediatrician monitored the child through blood tests. The participant reported that the blood tests showed no evidence of testosterone exposure in the child."

Weirdly the study does not consult the actual 'professional' here.

No one knows. If babies are fed by women who have pumped their bodies full of testosterone grow up with any kind of damage, we just don't know

I am a DES child. My mother took a drug - diethylstilbestrol - when she was pregnant which prevented miscarriage. Unfortunately, it affected the reproductive organs of many of the female babies born who had under developed reproductive systems and/or a much higher propensity for vaginal cancer.

Women tie themselves in knots because they drank a glass of wine before they knew they were pregnant. And yet it's fine to inject yourself with a cross sex hormone when you're breast feeding? Fuck off