Here is part of the article:
“What’s not in dispute is that Ms Buckley did discharge a fluid she characterised as breastmilk and proudly fed her baby boy soon after his birth, a scene she had photographed. Prior to signing up for the sex-change surgery, she had frozen the sperm used to impregnate wife Sandi, who steadfastly supported Adrian through transition. She was diagnosed with the auto-immune disease multiple sclerosis before becoming pregnant.”
“A committed couple of nearly two decades standing, they made no secret of how their son was nourished during his first days of life, with Ms Buckley venturing into the media and posting online to describe breastfeeding him.”
“As she later explained to British website parentingqueer.co.uk: “I didn’t realise that it could be an option for myself. My endocrinologist helped induce lactation by mimicking pregnancy in my body.”
”The process was exacting. Her oestrogen levels were boosted to those of a pregnant woman through hefty oral doses of female sex hormones. Next, she used off-label a drug called domperidone – an anti-nausea medication – to produce prolactin, a key hormone responsible for bringing on and sustaining breast milk in women after childbirth.”
“Finally,” she wrote, “I was on an anti-androgen (drug) to suppress my testosterone called cyproterone and suppress my testosterone it did, to undetectable levels. Along with this, to encourage lactation, I had a daily routine of using a breast pump to encourage my body to express milk.”
“At first, it was only a small amount but gradually increased … producing approximately 40-50mls per day. It was amazing that I was able to produce this amount.”
and
“Ms Buckley said the couple had agreed Sandi was “always” going to be the primary feeder, and her part would be supplemental, but not long-term, as the MS treatment Sandi had suspended to undergo IVF was to recommence a month after she gave birth.”
”For her part, Ms Buckley was to have cut her oestrogen intake two weeks before the baby’s due arrival, again to simulate what would happen to a pregnant woman. Their son had other ideas, however, and emerged a fortnight early. Sandi endured complications from the birth and struggled to breastfeed.”
”Fortunately, Ms Buckley had been freezing her lactate for three months, providing a reserve.”
“The doctors and midwives were reluctant to allow her to breastfeed in the hospital, concerned by “my ability to be able to do so and went as far to have discussion with my wife when I wasn’t there and wanting her to sign waiver forms and to declare my blood infectious status”.
”Discharged two days after delivering, Sandi became ill at home from retained placental fragments and was rushed back to hospital by ambulance.”
”“This meant that the only food our baby was getting was from the breast milk I had stored and was able to feed from my breasts, which wasn’t a lot,” Ms Buckley wrote. “All the stress associated with the childbirth and the emergency at home meant my body stopped producing milk. The night she went back to hospital via ambulance we decided that we would formula feed from now on.””