Breastfeeding Transgender Dad Wants to Raise Awareness About Trans Families

A transgender man who breastfeeds his babies has become a public advocate for trans parents across the world.

Trevor MacDonald, 31, from Manitoba, Canada, gave birth to two children “” and breastfed both of them.

The Guardian reported that Mr MacDonald began transitioning in his early 20s. He changed his name and started taking testosterone, and a year later, he had chest surgery.

After deciding to start a family together with his partner, Mr MacDonald decided to conceive a child. He said they knew that adopting a child as a gay man and transgender man may be difficult.

He told The Guardian that pregnancy never felt gendered to him, but he worried that breastfeeding would feel more gendered.

“I thought, am I going to be able to do that, or am I going to experience a lot of gender dysphoria?” he said.

However, he was able to breastfeed, and said he enjoyed it, which is evident in a Facebook post he made four years ago.

Mr MacDonald started blogging about his experience with breastfeeding, and wrote a memoir called “Where’s the mother? Stories from a Transgender Dad,” and began receiving questions from transgender people across the world who also wanted to start a family.

He then started working with a research team on several papers funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to compare the experiences of 22 transgender men from around the world as they went through pregnancy, birth and infant feeding.

The research found that of the nine men in the study who had chest surgery before becoming pregnant, none of them spoke with their doctors about breastfeeding beforehand, while one withheld his desire to have children from his doctor.

“There is this assumption that goes along with the ‘born in the wrong body’ narrative, that if you are a trans guy you would want a hysterectomy and never use your body to carry a pregnancy,” Mr MacDonald said. “But a baby doesn’t know what your pronouns are. And so, the study is also investigating the barriers transgender parents face in dealing with healthcare systems,” he added.

Mr MacDonald hopes that sharing his own experiences, and participating in the research project, will help raise awareness on trans families and promote discussion of its issues.

Source: Businessinsider.com.au