‘Chestfeeding’: Hospitals Tell Midwives To Change Language To Accommodate Trans Community

In Great Britain, a group of hospitals has instructed midwives in their maternity departments to use different terms when treating transgender patients in order to be more “gender-inclusive,” substituting “chestfeeding” for “breastfeeding” and replacing “breastmilk” with “human milk” or “breast/chestmilk” or “milk from the feeding mother or parent.”

“Terms like ‘chestfeeding’ and ‘human milk’ are being introduced at an NHS trust in a bid to boost inclusivity,” Bristol Live reports. “Staff have been asked to use gender-neutral language alongside – not instead of – traditional terms to ensure that all groups are represented.”