La Leche League Canada rejects breastfeeding dad bid to become lactation coach
Trevor MacDonald, a slim man with short silky, dark brown hair, a radiant smile sandwiched between a wispy moustache and goatee, sits bare chested in a leafy Toronto garden, his infant son sucking gently on his tipatagonia better sweater insulatedny left breast.
In the photo, shot on a recent visit to the city from his Winnipeg home, Trevor blissfully cradles the boy, contentment visible in his softpatagonia guide vest features. This is a proud papa breastfeeding his 16 month old child, just as he has done many times before.
Trevor, a 27 year old stay at home parent, loves fatherhood and, as a transgender man, identifies as a dad. And he loves breastfeeding, owing his confidence and comfort nursing to his La Leche League Canada (LLLC) motherhood support group in Winnipeg.
In early June Trevor wrote a letter to LLLC an affiliate of the influential international mother to mother breastfeeding advocacy group asking what it would take to become a group leader. He wanted to coach LGBTQ members and those who struggle, like he did,patagonia baby otter snowsuit review to breastfeed after chest reduction surgery.
LLLC rejected his inquiry seven weeks later, citing an 18 year old policy: an LLLC leader is a mother who breastfed a baby, a man cannot become an LLLC leader, the organization wrote in its reply, which is posted on Trevor blog, Milk Junkies.
told me that you do not identify as a mother, LLLC continued. are your baby father. According to LLL philosophy the ropatagonia buy ukles of mothers and fathers are not interchangeable. I think that this would make it difficult for you to represent LLL philosophy. Those words resonate strangely to a transgender man. For Trevor, who said he was by LLLC refusal, the terms motherhood and fatherhood are, at best, quaint.
and foremost I identify as a parent, Trevor said. suppose I use the term (fatherhood) because it what we have going in our society, not because I think it fantastic or I think it really accurate. But she insisted the group decision was not based on gender.
has made us all stop and think, Audy said. is the first time in 55 years (of LLLC history) this question has come up. La Leche League is about supporting parents who wish to breastfeed their babies . . . and we don want to get drawn into a discussion about gender issuwhere to buy patagonia wetsuitses, which is not our focus. This is not about gender identity or (Trevor choices in his gender. A leader requires at least nine months of breastfeeding practice and a convictiopatagonia guide vest1n that breastfeeding is optimal way to nourish, nurture, and comfort her baby, according to LLLC website.
LLLC rejection resists a trend among fertility care providers such as reproductive health care and abortion clinics to treat parentpatagonia special forces military jacket mensing in non gendered terms, said Andy Inkster, a health promoter at Toronpatagonia rising movie reviewto LGBTQ Parenting Network.
ppatagonia outlet online shoppingroviders who offer fertility and birth care have been challenged to rethink their practices as being client centred rather than only women centred, Inkster said, noting the Association of Ontario Midwives, which has a transgender people specific policy.
it La Leche turn now. Testosterone treatment thickenpatagonia guide vest0ed his vocal cords and enabled him to grow facial hair; later, surgery to remove chest tissue shrank his breasts.
didn know at the time of the surgery I be breastfeeding a baby, he said. in the pregnancy we thought we be formula feeding.
After consulting his endocrinologist, Trevor quit testosterone treatment about six months before getting pregnant in July, 2010.
Toward the end of his pregnancy, unsure if his reduced breasts would allow him to breastfeed, but awapatagonia guide vest2re of the health benefits and curious to find out, a big bellied Trevor nervously attended his first LLLC meeting. LLLC support meetings can cover all aspects of breastfeeding, from identifying whether the baby is full to dealing with clogged milk ducts to weaning.
He told the women only room about his transition andpatagonia everlong review golf his passionate desire to nurse. He still finds it hard to believe he was welcomed with open arms.
It was Trevor LLLC leader who coaxed baby Jacob into latching on to the new father nipple. Four days after the birth, when it became clear Trevor couldn lactate sufficiently, he turned to a supplemental nursing system: a bottle with a long, narrow tube filled with donated milk. Trevor wholeheartedly credits LLLC with helping Jacob suck simultaneously from his father breast and the tube.
can nurse him to sleep when he is wild yet far beyond exhausted, and latch him on to calm him when he had an unfortunate adventupatagonia guide jacket gatere with the corner of a coffee table, Trevor writes on his blog. I attend La Leche League meetings nowadays, I am able to give advice to brand new breastfeeding parents. If a new mom worries that she doesn have enough breast milk . . . I can share my story.
apatagonia guide vest3bout the baby and what he needs, Trevor said. chest looks male, but breastfeeding doesn feel to me like an exclusively female task. It a traditional mothering task, but to me it parenting. But the organization believes his mothering knowledge would not be put to appropriate use as a leader. Audy, the LLLC chair, refused to discuss specifics.
would be more helpful outside of La Leche League, she said. suggested Trevor would be able to support parents in other ways other than becoming a La Leche leader.
people have babies, well, you got to feed the baby, she said. parents and trans fathers want the same opportunities to do that, the same as anyone else would.
