Transgender Parents and La Leche League

A guest post from Mothers for Mother

Mothers for Mother (MfM) was a website started by disaffected La Leche League Leaders who could see that the LLLI Board was literally killing this venerable organisation by its insistence on using “a variety of terms” in place of mother. For 65 years LLL Leaders have provided mother to mother breastfeeding support at no cost to the many thousands of women who contact them every year. LLL has literally changed the course of breastfeeding history, but is in grave danger of losing its credibility as Board members alter policies (largely without consultation) to include men and erase women.

It was necessary for Mothers for Mother to be totally anonymous as no public criticism of LLL is ever allowed by Leaders. Leaders who complain (even in private League Facebook pages) are promptly bullied by gender woo warriors and threatened with being disaccredited. In the beginning, when MfM had a comments section, every Leader who commented was sanctioned/booted off committees or otherwise punished for their ‘insubordination’. Some Leaders are still fighting for their right to remain a Leader while at the same time holding gender critical views (AKA believing in facts and biology).

Because of the level of secrecy required to operate MfM, this website was taken down to protect the Leaders who created it. Reprinted with permission of the Mothers for Mother authors I am republishing a series of their posts as a form of archiving them for future readers who appreciate the sanity of those who believe in biological facts, over the thoughts of those who posit that nothing is more important than what they feel or believe about a made-up world of their choosing.

This was first published on April 12, 2022

Transgender Parents and La Leche League

Since La Leche League has devolved from a mother-to-mother breastfeeding support organization into a group that supports “everyone” to feed their babies (no breasts, breast milk, mothers or even women need to be involved), the messaging has also changed. Mixing causes is now obligatory and messages such as this one can be found not just on private, Leader only internet pages, but on LLLI public pages as well.

Because we are a binary sexed species, transgender parents are presenting as either trans women or trans men; those who identify as nonbinary are still biologically one sex or the other, so the discussion below is relevant depending on the biological sex of the nonbinary individual.

Trans women and breastfeeding

Leaders are now expected to help biological males who request assistance with baby feeding. Most males requesting help from a Leader will present as trans women who will have undergone various procedures. Many have had breast augmentation surgery and are taking estrogen with the intention of changing their sex from male to female, despite the impossibility of this. These procedures are being done to make them appear female. None of them will be trying to breastfeed a baby they have given birth to as men cannot achieve a pregnancy. At least 80% of them will retain intact male genitalia. This could put women in a vulnerable position when assuming they are in a safe single sex meeting. Research has shown that men who have committed sexual offenses against women and/or children do not change their behavior after transitioning. For a certain percentage, the thought of breastfeeding a baby is a lactophilia (a sexual fetish involving breasts and breast milk).

In the past, men have occasionally called Leaders with a legitimate concern for their partner who may need breastfeeding help. However, today a number of men contact Leaders in the guise of needing breastfeeding help “on behalf of my partner.” It soon becomes apparent that there is no partner and no baby that is needing help with feeding. These incidents are the direct result of LLLI welcoming “everyone” to breastfeed. Although there are procedures that Leaders can follow in theory, how is a Leader supposed to determine who she is dealing with now that LLL has committed to helping “everyone”?

During the Leader accreditation process is it assumed that even if an applicant supplemented occasionally, her experience is as a breastfeeding mother, not a health professional with artificial baby milk education. The entire foundation of LLL is that breastfeeding is different from bottle feeding. Infant feeding protocols in 1956 confirm the widespread professional ignorance about the normal course of breastfeeding. The seven Founders of LLL pooled their knowledge and experience in a return to breastfeeding as the normal infant feeding protocol.

Recently, there was a Leader survey which found in part that two thirds of the participants believe that it is not possible for them to support a man wishing to breastfeed. The LLLI Board’s answer to this displayed a stunning degree of ignorance. It equated that supporting a man to breastfeed was on a par with helping a mother who had special circumstances or medical issues. What can a Leader help a breastfeeding man with, according to the LLLI Board? Apparently the LLL Board is promoting the idea that a Leader can help a man with latching and positioning onto his artificial breast as Leaders would do for a mother who has real breasts. Additionally, skin-to-skin comfort, frequency of feeding, and night waking are considered to be the same, whatever the biology of the parent. This is not true.

The result of this misrepresentation of facts is the expectation that Leaders should try to help latch a baby onto a breast without the normal female nerve pathways that convey whether a baby is latched correctly or not. Men need to be advised that unlike mothers, their bodies do not change temperature to suit the needs of the baby so the baby may need additional coverage to maintain a normal temperature while having skin to skin. And aren’t frequency of feeding and night waking both issues that are highly dependent on what a baby is being fed? Isn’t the difference between the high digestibility of breast milk and the much slower time it takes for formula to make its way through the digestive tract one of the main differences between the two?

Despite some experimental studies in trans women endeavoring to produce milk, this has never been accomplished to date in useful quantities. Trans women wishing to breastfeed will be using formula being fed through a Supplemental Nursing System (SNS). So how well are Leaders prepared to give advice about formula feeding, which is very different from breastfeeding?

The well-researched evidence that a breastfeeding baby co-sleeping with his mother has reduced chance of dying from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) does not transfer over to a father or other family members who will be formula feeding and who lack the innate physiological responses that mothers have. So the usual information and support around bed sharing or co-sleeping arrangements cannot be offered as this would lead to unsafe sleep for babies.

The expectation by the LLLI Board for Leaders to emotionally support men wishing to breastfeed runs counter to the peer (mother to mother) support that has been the entire basis of LLL since its founding 65 years ago. Men are not and cannot be mothers, even those who take on a mothering role. The LLLI Board has stated that training for this will be provided for Leaders which also undermines the peer volunteer role of what women sign up for when they decide to become a Leader. Women are attracted to leadership because of the powerful emotions and experiences they undergo in the transition to motherhood, not the unachievable attempt to transition to the other sex. There is no innate connection of shared experience between a natal woman becoming a mother and a biological man attempting to breastfeed.

Babies being "fed" at the breast of a man are missing out on the physiological norms that all breastfed babies benefit from. Breastfeeding is a continuation of normal development following pregnancy and birth. And Leaders may be wondering, where is this baby’s mother? Why is she being denied the health optimizing benefits that breastfeeding confers on women?

Trans men and breastfeeding

Trans men are biological women who identify as men. As with trans women, a combination of hormones (in this case testosterone) and surgery are employed to change an outward appearance, however the results are a lot more detrimental for women than for men endeavoring to effect a change. Trans men, who are trying to create a more masculine appearance are at the same time taking risks with the possibility of ever being able to successfully breastfeed. Leaders have very real concerns about the possibility for a generation of women who may not be able to breastfeed due to the procedures and hormonal therapies they undertook at a very young age. These procedures also may result in a host of adverse medical conditions.

"Irreversible Damage"

The current cohort of girls with gender dysphoria receiving puberty blockers, in preparation for taking testosterone will not need any breastfeeding (or chestfeeding) help from Leaders. This is because most of them will be rendered infertile, which is a well-known side effect of puberty blockers, followed by cross sex hormones. When these drugs are administered to girls at the recommended age of between 10 and 12 years their eggs have not matured sufficiently to retrieve and save for use if a pregnancy is desired in the future. For those who begin their transition later, after puberty has commenced, they retain the capacity to become pregnant if they wish to have a baby.

Essentially, to ‘become’ a man, a woman’s body is induced into early menopause. The usual age that menopause occurs is associated with mood disorders and suicide.

Premature or early menopause is also associated with other adverse health outcomes including cognitive impairment, memory loss, dementia, parkinsonism, glaucoma, chronic heart disease, strokes, osteoporosis, mood disorders, sexual dysfunction, motor impairment and increased overall mortality. Most of these effects are the result of the loss of estrogen on the female body. The effects of menopause on the uterus are profound. The lining becomes thinner and the overall size decreases.

Taking testosterone at levels the female body is not designed to cope with is also part of the regimen for trans men. This has effects such as permanent facial hair and voice changes in women that persist even if a woman later decides to detransition. What additional effects on a prematurely menopaused uterus might this have?

We already know what the effects on fertility and general health raised testosterone levels have in women by looking at those who suffer from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). These women find it more difficult to conceive and are more likely to have higher rates of miscarriage, baby deaths, and cardiac issues and often have breastfeeding problems related to low supply.

Since excessive amounts of testosterone create so many problems for women, it is essential to consider the possible effects of this hormone on an unborn female fetus. What are the effects of excessive amounts of testosterone on the female fetus and on her own eggs that she is carrying? Can there be damage to the eggs of the female fetus herself that will impact on the next generation?

The most popular surgery for trans men is often called “top surgery”. This is a euphemism for an elective double mastectomy of healthy breasts. Whether or not to have the nipples reattached is an individual decision. Under the influence of pregnancy, any remaining glandular tissue may enlarge in preparation for milk production for the baby, but the amount won’t be enough to feed a baby and of course the pathways for milk secretion have been removed by surgery.

A trans man who has undergone surgery and approaches a Leader for help with feeding her baby is in a similar position to a trans woman. Latching a baby will be a challenge and an SNS will be a necessity. The most likely content of that SNS will be formula. Leaders are not medical professionals equipped to deal with artificial baby milk feeding management.

By endorsing and advancing transgender parents to breastfeed, (as seen in this meme from a Leader Facebook page) LLL is condoning the practice of young women choosing to self-harm and at the same time encouraging medical experimentation on babies who have not and cannot consent to this risky treatment. Leaders are not trained to do this work and do not have the personal experience that LLL was founded upon.

This is a giant leap away from one mother helping another mother breastfeed her baby.

It is not bigoted, hateful or transphobic to point out the biological and physiological realities of bodies and their lived experience. Babies are born in a primal state, with expectations they need their mothers to meet in order to optimize their development and to thrive. The fact that some are born into a world that does not meet their needs is not proof that these needs do not exist; it speaks to the incredible adaptability of the human species to survive even in the face of great adversity. LLL used to recognize these facts, not pretend they don’t exist.

Reference

Shrier, Abigail, Irreversible Damage, The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, Regnery Publishing, 2020.