June is 2SLGBTQ+ Pride Month! It’s a special time to respect and honor our friends who are Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, or Queer. To celebrate, New Beginnings is showcasing personal accounts and relevant resources about breastfeeding, chestfeeding, and human milk feeding in a variety of families.

La Leche League USA stands with and supports all human milk feeding families. “We at La Leche League International have all nursed our babies. If you want to do the same, whoever you are, whatever your story is, we’re here to help. LLLI is committed to serving everyone inclusive of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, physical or mental ability, socio-economic status, political views, gender identity, sexual orientation, family structure, or other protected status. LLLI seeks the equitable accreditation of a diverse body of Leaders.”

We have some beautiful and inspiring stories to share this week for Pride. We hope you enjoy reading them!

• My Partner’s Unwavering Support: Lindsay describes the many ways in which her wife supported her through pregnancy, illness, breastfeeding, and beyond.
• My Journey: Non-binary Nursing: Evan recounts the journey of how their breasts became “nursies”. A favorite quote from that story: “For me, personally, my breasts have everything to do with who I am as a parent and nothing to do with my gender. I expect the memory of nursing will forever be a part of how I define love.”
• Support and Reassurance in Meeting Chestfeeding Goals: Sion Jesse recalls receiving valuable support from a La Leche League Leader and nursing until baby Caleb weaned at age three.
• Growing in LLLove, Valerie shares how La Leche League helped her parent her gender non-conforming child. “Listen with compassion, seek support, and educate yourself. The one thing in my life that prepared me in any way for my child’s journey is my affiliation with La Leche League.”
• Where is the Mother? by Trevor Kirczenow MacDonald: Trevor writes from personal experience of his fathering journey with low milk supply. His babies never received formula, thanks to a tireless network of milk donors. Trevor is a retired La Leche League Leader residing in Canada.

There are many ways to form a family and to nurture a baby, and we respect and support them all. Responsive infant feeding is achievable, using a variety of strategies.

• Co-nursing: More than one parent may share in the experience of feeding the baby. If one parent carried the pregnancy, they may have a full milk supply. Even if neither parent gestated the baby, one or both may choose to induce lactation to develop their own milk supply. Shared lactation means there’s more milk for the baby and more immunity protections to protect the baby’s health.
• Donor milk: Sometimes parents are unable to lactate or to make enough milk for their baby. Donor milk can help a baby receive the benefits of human milk and responsive feeding. You can learn more about milk sharing and milk donation here.
• Respect: We recognize that some people may describe their own identities, their own bodies, and their families in a variety of ways, and we respect that in our communications. Parents may describe their feeding experiences as feeding, breastfeeding, chestfeeding, nursing, human milk feeding, bodyfeeding. They might refer to themselves, their partners, and their children in a variety of ways. In some communities, there are cultural roles and responsibilities that are given to gender nonconforming people. To learn more, please refer to the LLL USA resource sheet about transgender and non-binary nursing, available in English here and in Spanish here.

If you have a story for Pride Month about your family, your parenting journey, or your breastfeeding/chestfeeding/human milk feeding journey, we would love to hear it! Please send your story or ideas to Kylie at [email protected]

More resources:

• Cooperative Lactation and the Mother Infant Nexus
• Allomaternal Nursing In Humans

Supporting Breastfeeding Families–Today, Tomorrow, Always

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