Men Breastfeeding (Again)

Haven’t you guys got anything better to do?

Jennifer Buckley

Men who claim to really be women do have one attribute in common: they can be relentless in their pursuit of getting their own way. Jennifer Buckley is an Australian man who thinks he is a woman, so much so that when he and his wife had a baby, he made sure that he was in charge of infant feeding, which of course meant that his baby ended up being formula fed because the few ounces he could produce were never going to be enough for normal growth and development (and he quit even trying after one week). According to him, his wife supported his desire to breastfeed.

So why is it important to breastfeed anyway? Many trees have died to produce all the printed evidence for breastfeeding for everyone (since we all start out as babies). Breastfeeding is the species-specific way to feed all baby mammals, including us. It is not “best”, it is normal and any deviations from a mother’s own milk are an inferior substitute. That so many babies survive without this is a testament to the adaptability of humans, not proof that it doesn’t matter how we are fed as newborns.

All this evidence around lactation and breastfeeding has been collected from studying women because women are the only sex designed by evolution to lactate and breastfeed. Breastfeeding is part of the female reproductive continuum, following on from pregnancy, labor and birth. Men do not have anything that even comes close to being similar because crudely put, men’s reproductive efforts can be limited to a ‘shoot and go’ experience. No man ever has to invest any more than a single sperm into reproduction, whereas every woman literally puts her life on the line every time she has sex that results in a pregnancy.

Who needs facts when you have identities?

So, when I read about this study called Pilot Survey Assessing Lactation and Breastfeeding Experiences, Attitudes, and Knowledge Among Transfeminine Individuals from Duke University I had a bit of a problem.

Appropriating “women” is bad enough, but “female”? The dictionary definition of female is, “of or denoting the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs, distinguished biologically by the production of gametes (ova) that can be fertilized by male gametes”. As all the study participants are natal males, there is no way that even with extensive “gender affirming care” that these guys are ever going to produce eggs.

The gaslighting begins with the abstract which reads,

Transfeminine individuals are capable of developing breast tissue that is indistinguishable from cis-females, allowing them to breastfeed effectively. Breastfeeding affords known health benefits for both members of a lactating individual–infant dyad and supporting this experience for transfeminine individuals fosters reproductive equity.

If by “indistinguishable”, you mean that some men grow their breasts so they can wear bras, yup, that’s true, but having visible breast tissue and using this to breastfeed is like telling me if I have a wheel, I have transport. And the study they use to back up their claim is by the same team who brought us the study that “proved” that men can breastfeed (well at least for six weeks, which is a bit short when compared with the WHO guidelines which state two years or longer is best practice), along with another literature review that concluded that since breast development in women is hormonally driven, if you just give men the same hormones, hey presto, you get breasts!

No proof is offered in support of this claim, “Breastfeeding affords known health benefits for both members of a lactating individual–infant dyad” in the case of male lactation. Unless the “lactating individual–infant dyad” refers to a birth mother and her baby, there is no supporting research around even an adoptive lactating mother and her baby, let alone a male wanting to mimic womanhood.

If “supporting this experience for transfeminine individuals fosters reproductive equity” means sanctioning medical experimentation on babies, count me out. No man should be allowed or encouraged to use a baby as a means to a very selfish end.

Reproductive equity means that people should have the opportunity to make their own reproductive choices and achieve their reproductive goals. It also means that healthcare systems, government policies, and other structures should support and value everyone fairly and justly. It does not mean that everyone should be treated the same, as if sex is irrelevant to reproduction. Babies are not actually delivered by storks; they need a female body to come into existence and that female body pays a price that no man will ever need to pay.

The same team that came up with this study recently also published another bit of research based on a 50-year-old man’s attempt to breastfeed. (Why am I thinking that if a 50-year-old woman wanted to do this, she would face public criticism, but if some man does it…) He was considered to have successfully lactated when at his peak, he was pumping 30 mL (about one ounce) of milk per pumping session. Pity that even newborns need about one to two ounces (30-60 mL) eight to twelve times a day and by one month that increases to around three to four ounces (90-120 mL) eight to ten times a day, meaning that the average breastfeeding mother will have produced at least 40 US gallons (150 liters) of breast milk for her baby during his or her first half-year of life.

I have worked with hundreds of women and not one of them would have considered that she had aced breastfeeding by producing an ounce of milk per pumping session.

Because women breastfeed for their babies and men breastfeed for themselves, the authors make the point that, “Breastfeeding was defined to participants as “feeding a baby with milk directly from the breast” and lactation was defined as “producing breast milk.” It was important to separate and present both these concepts, as some individuals may lactate without the goal of feeding an infant.” I was initially puzzled as to why anyone would put in the work to induce lactation in the absence of a baby to feed. Lactophilia anyone? I guess size matters when guys are comparing boob sizes.

Perhaps the answer to this is found in the next section, which states that when questioned,

Nearly four out of every five (n = 56, 78.9%) participants felt that lactation was important to them. When asked why lactation was important, participants referenced affirming their gender identity (n = 41, 57.7%) and bringing their breasts to full maturity (n = 36, 50.7%); improved mood/well-being was a less common (n = 20, 28.2%) reason for lactation being important.

Many participants in our study thought that it should be a health care priority to help transfeminine individuals breastfeed (n = 50, 70.4%) …

Additional important reasons for breastfeeding were affirming one’s gender identity (n = 33, 46.5%) and improved mood/well-being (n = 16, 22.5%).

While it is true that, “nearly half of the respondents referenced parent–child bonding (n = 34, 47.9%), and the same number cited health and nutritional benefits to the newborn (n = 34, 47.9%)”, there is no recognition that this “parent-child bonding” comes at the expense of the mother/baby relationship, which when disrupted causes trauma for both babies and their mothers. Additionally, there are no known “health and nutritional benefits to the newborn” from male breast milk.

“Alternative facts” have no place in science

The participants were given a three-question true/false quiz to test their knowledge around male lactation, but the only question that has any basis in known science was the first one which asked if one needed to have been pregnant in order to lactate.

The other two questions didn’t reference reality but were based on magical thinking. There is no proof that the breast tissue of a transgender woman on estrogen is exactly the same as the breast tissue of women particularly when we are talking about functionality, not appearance.

And the third question “The milk produced by transgender women provides the same nutrition to the baby as the milk produced by cisgender women” is totally unknown and there is no ethical way to even study this question. Considering that brand new elements are still being discovered in breast milk, what is their comparator? Even for women, their milk is different depending on whether it is fed from the breast or from a bottle, because without direct breastfeeding, there is no communication between the mother’s and the baby’s immune systems.

Complaining about “the existing cis- and heteronormative reproductive environments” doesn’t change the fact that the reproductive environment for mammal babies is inside the uterus of their female mother. I don’t actually care that “This study demonstrates that a substantial number of transfeminine individuals believe it should be a health care priority to help this patient population with both lactation and breastfeeding”. Ardent belief is no substitution for researched medical fact. Many men also believe that men are smarter than women, but I don’t see this being taught in universities.

So, babies must be sacrificed to cater to male breast development?

The benefits of greatest importance, as viewed among our study population, differed between lactation (gender affirmation and breast maturation) and breastfeeding (breastfeeding-dyad bond and infant health/nutrition).

There is lots of research that shows what happens when the mother/baby dyad is broken and none of it supports a “breastfeeding-dyad bond”. There are no actual unicorns on earth right now. And equally, every study ever done demonstrates that optimal infant nutrition is gained at the breasts of birth mothers. Even the WHO puts donor breast milk behind a mother’s own milk if babies need supplementation.

Furthermore, an examination of lactation efficacy for breast development would be prudent because the breast reaches a mature functional state only during lactation, and up to two-thirds of transfeminine individuals are unsatisfied with their breast development from hormone therapy alone.

Hey dude, if you want to lactate to get bigger boobs, well you do you, but leave babies out the equation. They are not obliged to help out you fellows gain an extra cup size.

Even though Jennifer Buckley was a failure at breastfeeding, he was so offended when a woman dared to question his motives that he has initiated a civil court case against her. Responding to comments telling his story on social media about breastfeeding his baby, a former Australian Breastfeeding Association counselor said that men breastfeeding is “experimental’’ and a “dangerous fetish”.

It’s not our job to “prove” that men breastfeeding harms babies, it’s the job of men to prove their fetishes don’t cause harms to others. Maybe instead of taking truth telling women to court, they could work on that angle.