Trevor Kirczenow | |
|---|---|
 Trevor Kirczenow | |
| Born | 1985 (age 38–39) Canada |
| Occupation(s) | Healthcare researcher and advocate, author, politician |
| Notable work | Where's the Mother? Stories from a Transgender Dad |
| Website | trevorkirczenow |
Trevor Kirczenow (born 1985) is a transgender health researcher and diabetes healthcare advocate. He is an author and community organizer in the field of LGBTQ lactation and infant feeding. He has run twice as a candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada.
Kirczenow earned a Bachelor of Political Science honours degree from the University of British Columbia. [1]
In 2014, Kirczenow formed a research team [2] through the University of Ottawa which obtained funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to conduct qualitative research about transmasculine individuals' experiences of pregnancy, birthing, and feeding their newborns. [3]
The group's research paper, "Transmasculine individuals’ experiences with lactation, chestfeeding, and gender identity: a qualitative study," [4] contains the first known use of the word "chestfeeding" in the title of an academic paper, [5] which is a term preferred by some transmasculine individuals to describe their lactation and nursing relationship. [6]
Kirczenow says "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." [2] He noted that none of the participants' surgeons discussed the potential for future chestfeeding before performing top surgery, and that "the range of experiences and showing more nuance, more complexity, about transgender lives is what is most important in this study." [5]
Kirczenow was the first openly transgender candidate to have been nominated by a major Canadian political party for a federal election. [7] He ran for the Liberal Party candidate for Provencher in the 2019 Canadian federal election and the 2021 Canadian federal election, finishing second both times.
Having been assigned female at birth, Kirczenow transitioned to male by taking testosterone and undergoing chest surgery. When he and his partner decided to start a family, on advice from a doctor, Kirczenow stopped hormone therapy and was able to become pregnant. Although Kirczenow did not plan to breastfeed and assumed it would not be possible, he decided to try after learning that "even a small amount of milk could be really valuable to my baby," and that "breastfeeding is about more than the milk. It can be a relationship too and a whole way of parenting." [8]
Before his child was born, Kirczenow (under his married name, MacDonald), sought peer-to-peer support from his local chapter of La Leche League (LLL), the international breastfeeding organization. He was later asked to assume a volunteer leadership position. However, La Leche League Canada (LLLC) rejected his query, saying "the topic has never arisen in the 56-year history of our organization" [9] and "since an LLLC leader is a mother who breastfed a baby, a man cannot become an LLLC leader." [10] [11]
The board of La Leche League International (LLLI) reviewed the policy, [12] citing its mandate to be a "nondiscriminatory service organization." A year later, they revised their policy to allow leaders to serve no matter their gender. [13] LLLI spokesperson Diana West commented, "It was thought that only women could breastfeed. Once it became clear it wasn’t as straightforward as that, the policy had to change. We’re just trying to be on the right side of history. Yes, we took a year to do it, but we did it in a way that was fair and unequivocal." [14]
In 2016, Kirczenow became the first-ever transgender man to be accredited as a La Leche League leader. LLLI said to other leaders: "We recognize that any breastfeeding parent, regardless of whether they self-identify as a mother or father, should be – and is now – welcome to investigate LLL Leadership. There are other prerequisites that a potential Leader needs to satisfy, but being a woman isn't one of them.” [15]
In 2012, Kirczenow founded the international advocacy and support group, "Birthing and Breast or Chestfeeding Trans People and Allies". [16] The group currently has over 6800 members. [17]
After his son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, Kirczenow co-founded the advocacy group Emergency Diabetes Support for Manitobans in 2020, advocating for improved coverage in Manitoba and a national Pharmacare plan for people who cannot afford lifesaving medication. [18] [19] The group was successful in lobbying for continuous glucose monitors and improvements to insulin pump coverage from the province. [18]
In 2015, several commentators claimed that Kirczenow, who was attended by midwives during his pregnancies, had forced the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) to stop using gendered language such as "mothers" and "pregnant women." [20] [21] [22] However, Snopes reported that while MANA did change some of the language in their core materials to clarify they welcomed transgender and cisgender clients in their scope of practice, those decisions were based on their own standards of care, inclusion, and position on gender identity, and not due to pressure from Kirczenow or any other trans people. [23]
Following MANA's announcement, a group of midwives penned an open letter to MANA protesting what they viewed as "the erasure of women from the language of birth." [24] Kirczenow wrote a response in the Huffington Post [25] saying that "trans, genderqueer and intersex people have been giving birth for as long as women-identified people have" and "it is possible to be inclusive." [25] Several other associations of midwives subsequently issued statements supportive of MANA and gender nonconforming clients. [26] [27] [28] [29]
Kirczenow, under his married last name MacDonald, has written for The Guardian , The Advocate , [30] the Huffington Post , [31] Out Magazine and This Magazine . He is a public speaker about transgender people and reproductive health, including lactation. [32] [33] [34]
He is first author on the first peer-reviewed medical research article on the subject of transmasculine infant chestfeeding. [4]
Kirczenow is the author of a tip sheet for volunteer leaders who are providing support to transgender, transsexual, and genderfluid individuals who wish to nurse their babies [35] and was profiled in La Leche League International's magazine, Breastfeeding Today. [36]
Kirczenow's 2016 biography Where's the Mother? Stories from a Transgender Dad [37] has been added to the required reading list for Doula Trainings International, who commented that the book is "eye-opening for new and seasoned doulas alike." [38] It was reviewed by Publishers Weekly as "frank, clever, and easy to process ... a refreshing and insightful narrative." [39] The work has also received coverage in The New York Times, [40] The Guardian, [2] The Toronto Star, [16] Buzzfeed, [41] Gay Star News, [42] Metro UK, [43] The Advocate, [44] Rewire, [45] and on the Canadian Television Network's national newscast. [46]
A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identity or alleviates gender dysphoria.
La Leche League International (LLLI) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that organizes advocacy, education, and training related to breastfeeding. It is present in about 89 countries.
The World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA) is a network of people working on a global scale to eliminate obstacles to breastfeeding and to act on the Innocenti Declaration. The groups within this alliance tackle the problems from a variety of perspectives or point of views, such as consumer advocates, mothers, and lactation consultants.
Lactational amenorrhea, also called postpartum infertility, is the temporary postnatal infertility that occurs when a woman is amenorrheic and fully breastfeeding.
The history and culture of breastfeeding traces changing social, medical and legal attitudes to breastfeeding, the act of feeding a child breast milk directly from breast to mouth. Breastfeeding may be performed by the infant's mother or by a surrogate, typically called a wet nurse.
Breastfeeding difficulties refers to problems that arise from breastfeeding, the feeding of an infant or young child with milk from a woman's breasts. Although babies have a sucking reflex that enables them to suck and swallow milk, and human breast milk is usually the best source of nourishment for human infants, there are circumstances under which breastfeeding can be problematic, or even in rare instances, contraindicated.
Breastfeeding, or nursing, is the process by which human breast milk is fed to a child. Breast milk may be from the breast, or may be pumped and fed to the infant. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that breastfeeding begin within the first hour of a baby's life and continue as often and as much as the baby wants. Health organizations, including the WHO, recommend breastfeeding exclusively for six months. This means that no other foods or drinks, other than vitamin D, are typically given. The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life, followed by continued breastfeeding with appropriate complementary foods for up to 2 years and beyond. Of the 135 million babies born every year, only 42% are breastfed within the first hour of life, only 38% of mothers practice exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months, and 58% of mothers continue breastfeeding up to the age of two years and beyond.
Lactation describes the secretion of milk from the mammary glands and the period of time that a mother lactates to feed her young. The process naturally occurs with all sexually mature female mammals, although it may predate mammals. The process of feeding milk in all female creatures is called nursing, and in humans it is also called breastfeeding. Newborn infants often produce some milk from their own breast tissue, known colloquially as witch's milk.
Breastfeeding promotion refers to coordinated activities and policies to promote health among women, newborns and infants through breastfeeding.
Diana West is a leading lactation consultant and author specializing on the topic of breastfeeding.
Diane Wiessinger is an American breastfeeding advocate, author and researcher who is known for her essay "Watch your language!", which asserts that breastfeeding is normal, not superior. The term "Wiessingerize" in the circles of breastfeeding advocates means to talk about breastfeeding as the norm to which other forms of nurturing and nourishing children is compared.
A lactation consultant is a health professional who specializes in the clinical management of breastfeeding. The International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE) certifies lactation consultants who meet its criteria and have passed its exam.
Transgender pregnancy is the gestation of one or more embryos or fetuses by transgender people. As of 2023, the possibility is restricted to those born with female reproductive systems. However, transition-related treatments may impact fertility. Transgender men and nonbinary people who are or wish to become pregnant face social, medical, legal, and psychological concerns. As uterus transplantations are currently experimental, and none have successfully been performed on trans women, they cannot become pregnant.
Breastfeeding and medications is the description of the medications that can be used by a breastfeeding mother, and the balance between maternal health and the safety of the breastfeeding infant. Medications, when administered to breastfeeding mothers, almost always are transferred to breast milk, albeit usually in small quantities. The degree of impact on the nursing infant varies, with many medications posing minimal risk. Nonetheless, informed decision-making and professional guidance is needed.
In breastfeeding women, low milk supply, also known as lactation insufficiency, insufficient milk syndrome, agalactia, agalactorrhea, hypogalactia or hypogalactorrhea, is the production of breast milk in daily volumes that do not fully meet the nutritional needs of her infant.
Mary Ann Kerwin is an American lawyer and breastfeeding activist. One of the seven founders of La Leche League in 1956, she established the Colorado branch of the advocacy group and drafted state laws on behalf of women who breastfeed their infants in public and in the workplace. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2012.
Discrimination against transgender men and transmasculine individuals, sometimes referred to as transandrophobia, anti-transmasculinity, or transmisandry, is a similar concept to transmisogyny and discrimination against non-binary people. Transmisogyny, discrimination against transgender men and discrimination against nonbinary people are types of transphobia which affect trans women, trans men and nonbinary people respectively.
Kayden Coleman is an American transgender advocate, educator, and social media influencer. He is known for raising awareness of transmasculine men who experience pregnancy. In 2013, when Coleman was 4 years into gender reassignment therapy, he found out he was pregnant with his and his partner's first child. Since then, Coleman has been interviewed by news outlets such as USA Today, TODAY.com, and Out about his experiences with transgender pregnancy. In 2021, he was honored by Out as an Out100 honoree, a recognition given to prominent members of the LGBTQ+ community for their outstanding work promoting LGBTQ+ rights. He has appeared in a commercial for Lexus.
Hand expression of breast milk is a technique used by lactating mothers to express milk using their hands. It is an ancient practice that has been used by women across the world for centuries. Hand expression has gained renewed interest in recent years due to its affordability, portability, and effectiveness. It is an important tool for breastfeeding mothers, especially those who are unable to afford or access breast pumps.
