{"id":9526,"date":"2018-02-17T04:48:31","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T04:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=9526"},"modified":"2018-02-17T04:48:31","modified_gmt":"2018-02-17T04:48:31","slug":"transgender-woman-breast-feeds-baby-after-hospital-induces-lactation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/transgender-woman-breast-feeds-baby-after-hospital-induces-lactation\/","title":{"rendered":"Transgender Woman Breast-Feeds Baby After Hospital Induces Lactation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kathmandu (Pahichan) February 17 – When a transgender woman told doctors at a hospital in New York that she wanted to breast-feed her pregnant partner\u2019s baby, they put her on a regimen of drugs that included an anti-nausea medication licensed in Britain and Canada but banned in the United States.<\/p>\n

Within a month, according to the journal\u00a0Transgender Health<\/a>, the woman, 30, who was born male, was producing droplets of milk. Within three months \u2014 two weeks before the baby\u2019s due date \u2014 she had increased her production to eight ounces of milk a day.<\/p>\n

In the end, the study showed, \u201cshe was able to achieve sufficient breast milk volume to be the sole source of nourishment for her child for six weeks,\u201d according to the journal.<\/p>\n

Dr. Tamar Reisman and Zil Goldstein, a nurse practitioner, of the\u00a0Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery<\/a>\u00a0in New York, say the case illustrates that, in some circumstances, modest but functional lactation can be induced in transgender women who did not give birth or undergo surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that this is the first formal report in the medical literature of induced lactation in a transgender woman,\u201d said the study\u2019s authors,\u00a0Dr. Reisman<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Ms. Goldstein<\/a>, a transgender activist and program director at the center. They were not immediately available for comment on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Some hailed the case study, published in January, as a \u201cbreakthrough\u201d for transgender families; others called it \u201cdangerous\u201d and \u201cdisturbing.\u201d But if confirmed in wider studies, the regimen could represent a next major stage in transgender parenthood. Transgender men like\u00a0Thomas Beatie<\/a>,\u00a0Trystan Reese\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0Kaci Sullivan<\/a>\u00a0have made headlines by giving birth. But breast-feeding for transgender women had not been officially documented.<\/p>\n

Breast milk is considered the best form of nutrition for infants.\u00a0Breast-fed babies<\/a>\u00a0have healthier immune systems, score higher on I.Q. tests and may be less prone to obesity than other babies. Advocacy campaigns have noted that the practice facilitates mother-child bonding, and saves families from spending money on infant formula. The World Health Organization, in setting new international bench marks for children\u2019s growth, has said that\u00a0breast-feeding is the biological norm.<\/a><\/p>\n

But in the case published in Transgender Health, it is not known whether breast milk from this kind of induced lactation is equivalent to milk produced after giving birth by women who are not transgender.<\/p>\n

Dr. Joshua D. Safer, medical director of transgender medicine and surgery at Boston Medical Center, called the study \u201ca very big deal\u201d and said he expected it to become very popular among transgender women.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s out there on internet forums, but there\u2019s a lot on the internet that\u2019s true or untrue to varying degrees,\u201d he said\u00a0in an interview<\/a>\u00a0with the weekly magazine New Scientist. \u201cIt\u2019s a very big deal to have this recorded in a reliable document.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others were skeptical about the study and what it could mean for transgender women.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all want to have the same experiences as women,\u201d Maria Clifford, 38, a British transgender mother who has been using a surrogate to breast-feed her child, said on Thursday. \u201cWe need further testing and evidence to show that these drugs aren\u2019t going to cause harm to the baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBreast milk is the most important product for the development of a child,\u201d Ms. Clifford added. \u201cWe need to make sure it\u2019s pure and hormone free.\u201d<\/p>\n