June is National Pride Month, a time to honor years of struggle for civil rights and the ongoing work toward equal justice under the law for the LGBTQ+ community. A celebration of differences, from all it’s glitter, gender-bending, mainstream-smashing trailblazers to the quieter members who live their sweet lives alongside their neighbors simply wanting to belong, and be protected.
LGBTQ+ Parents are equally diverse – and working toward access to information and support for the variety of ways their babies can have human milk in their diet, and a physically close relationship with their caregivers, benefits everyone.
Breastfeed Durham’s Local & National Resource Lists for LGBTQ+ Parents. We have links to information and support for inducing lactation (whether you are the non-birth parent in a female samesex relationship, adopting and you have mammary glands, a trans woman or trans man). There are also various resources for using donor human milk (maybe you’re two dads with an adopted infant or a newborn from a surrogate, or an individual having induced lactation but not producing a full milk supply, etc) and using various at-chest supplementers/at chest feeding positions (regardless of chestfeeding ability in order to stimulate that physiological bond between caregiver and infant). Parents can also find LGBTQ+ friendly medical & lactation support for anyone engaged in a chestfeeding relationship needing some guidance regardless of gender or sexual orientation as well as resources for medical providers.
Affordable access to human milk, support for all chestfeeding relationships, available medical treatments to induce lactation, representation in media of all types of families and the ways they feed their infants – these could be a strong start toward a more equitable society where all babies have the same opportunity for that “great equalizer” that is human milk/chestfeeding – as it impacts health equity outcomes at all stages of life.
Join us on June 3 at 11 A.M, in continuing to learn, to speak out for the community’s needs, and working toward supporting all parents on the journey of feeding their babies!