A professional association of women’s doctors recently urged clinicians to refrain from using the word “breastfeeding” when addressing transgender men.
THE WORD
In draft guidelines issued last month, the U.K.’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists recommended asking transgender men, i.e. biological women who identify as men, whether they want to “chestfeed” their baby, The Times of London reported.
Throughout the document, the group used “chestfeed” as a gender-neutral alternative to “breastfeed.”
- Other recommendations included that doctors make sure to use patients’ “preferred pronouns” and that transgender women be put in female medical departments.
SAME ENERGY
In the U.S., the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine last year suggested using “father’s milk” as a “gender inclusive” term for breastmilk.