‘Breastfeeding’ her infant an hour after his wife gave birth to the boy helped a transgender mother who was born male feel more feminine.
Doctors urged Brisbane paramedic Jennifer Buckley against feeding her newborn son Auden from her own chest, but she went through nonetheless.
‘One of the restrictions of being a trans woman is that I can’t carry,’ Ms Buckley told Daily Mail Australia.
‘I wanted to be a part of it because I knew I could nurse my own child and have that experience.’ I was curious about what it was like to be a mother who breastfed.’
The controversial practice has been criticised by specialists as experimental and unethical but Ms Buckley believed she had the right to breastfeed her infant.
The 41-year-old would never be able to carry her own baby but began medically transitioning into a woman in 2017 after years of feeling she was female.
Before the transition Ms Buckley froze her sperm which was used to conceive Auden with wife Sandi Honnery-Buckley, now 35, who gave birth in 2019.
I will never know what’s it like to menstruate or carry a baby or give birth,’ Ms Buckley said.
‘But to be told I could have the opportunity to breastfeed, it was something that was nice to be able to experience as a trans woman.’
Ms Buckley said her endocrinologist had suggested she try to produce breast milk a couple of months before her wife gave birth.
‘I never thought it would be possible. I jumped at the opportunity,’ she said.
Ms Buckley said her wife was completely supportive of her wishes while she was pregnant with Auden and that her milk was meant to supplement Ms Honnery-Buckley’s supply.
After consulting with her endocrinologist Ms Buckley upped her oestrogen to mimic pregnancy and started taking the drug domperidone.
Domperidone is an anti-nausea medication found to increase levels of the hormone prolactin, which causes breasts to grow and make milk during pregnancy and after birth.
Ms Buckley then began using a breast pump to induce ‘milk’ which she froze.
‘The first time it came out I just started leaking,’ Ms Buckley said. ‘Then I pumped and it was a weird feeling having a suction cap suck out milk, but it was exciting.
‘I thought, “Oh my God, I am actually producing human milk”.’
Ms Buckley said she breastfed Auden just an hour after his birth while her wife was being treated for a haemorrhage.
‘It was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be,’ she said.
‘I’d only been transitioning for a year and half. My breast development hadn’t been completed and it was harder than I thought it would be to get him to latch on.’
Ms Buckley said when doctors at the hospital learnt she was trying to breastfeed Auden they warned Ms Honnery-Buckley it could put her newborn at risk.
The doctors asked Ms Honnery-Buckley to sign a waiver and wanted to see documentary evidence of Ms Buckley’s blood infection status.
Ms Buckley said she was made to feel like she was not Auden’s biological parent during the first days after his birth.
‘I was very angry,’ she said.
‘The last day she was in hospital I brought my frozen milk in because he was going jaundiced, and they weren’t listening to my wife’s concerns about her not producing breast milk.
‘A day and a half after she came home, Sandi was still trying to breastfeed. A lot of it was left to me going through my stored supply and whatever I was expressing.’
Dr Foteini Kakulas (above) from the University of Western Australia believes only women produce breast milk
While at home Ms Honnery-Buckley suffered severe abdominal pain and an elevated heart rate. An ambulance took her to hospital and it was discovered she had retained placenta products, which meant she was not producing milk.
‘Apart from the milk he was getting from me he was essentially starving,’ Ms Buckley said of the couple’s hungry son.
‘I genuinely believe had I not brought my breast milk into the hospital he could have become very sick with liver and kidney issues from lack of nutrition.’
It was at that point the couple made the decision to both stop breastfeeding.
Ms Buckley said she stopped being able to produce milk from the night she called the ambulance and believed that was due to the stress of potentially losing her wife.
‘I kept up the regime for at least a week, but I was barely getting 5ml a day,’ she said.
‘It was sad. It was frustrating, but as brief as it was, I did get to experience it. I would have preferred to do it a lot longer. But Auden’s wellbeing was paramount.’
Dr Foteini Kakulas from the University of Western Australia’s Medical School specialises in lactation and believes only women produce breast milk.
‘While it is possible for male breast tissue to produce something, what exactly that is, how it may or may not resemble breast milk, and whether this is healthy for the individual person or for the baby, are all unknown and never been studied,’ she said.
‘In my view in nature only females lactate in mammals, so trying to do something against nature won’t result in any good.
‘At the end of the day women make babies and breastfeed.’
Dr Naomi Achong (above) is the Brisbane endocrinologist who recommended Ms Buckley breastfeed her son Auden
Anna Kerr, principal solicitor at Feminist Legal Clinic, said it was harmful to characterise galactorrhea – a milky nipple discharge – in trans women as breast milk.
‘I haven’t seen any evidence men can lactate and produce milk in the quantities that can sustain a child’s life and to attempt to do so is experimenting on the child,’ she said.
‘It detracts from the importance of maternity and women engaged in nurturing their offspring.
‘It is extraordinarily offensive to women. Producing a few droplets doesn’t equate to breastfeeding.’
Ms Kerr firmly believed the practice belittled the marvel of lactation and trivialised that aspect of motherhood.
‘Calling it breastfeeding is already misleading. Ultimately the child is not being fed,’ she said.
‘The ideology that claims men can breastfeed is harmful. It has no evidence base and undermines not only the rights of babies to their mother’s milk, but also respect for maternity in general.’
Ms Buckley proudly shared her experience with Auden through the Australian Breastfeeding Association on Mother’s Day last year.
A month later the ABA was criticised for co-authoring with Rainbow Families a booklet called Breastfeeding, Chestfeeding and Human Milk Feeding to guide transgender women through the process of milk production.
Dr Naomi Achong, a former president of Australian Professional Association for Trans Health (AusPATH), is the Brisbane endocrinologist who recommended Ms Buckley breastfeed Auden.
It is understood she has helped five other transgender women breastfeed.
Dr Achong spoke on the topic of ‘lactation induction in transfemales’ at a AusPATH conference last weekend and her talk was one of the most booked events.
Ms Buckley said Auden was now a happy and healthy three-year-old.
