The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine called for language that was more inclusive of transgender and other alternative genders in a statement Friday.
The lengthy statement explained why the organization was recommending that people use the word “chestfeeding” to include parents who were biologically male, and use “human milk feeding individuals” more generally.
The ABM said that they were responding to calls from the World Health Organization and the United Nations to change the language in order to avoid “violence” and discrimination against “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people.”
They called this policy the effort to “desex” a language, or to use gender-inclusive language.
The ABM also recommended that instead of using the word “mother,” people should use “gestational parent.”
Instead of using “breastfeeding mother,” the ABM recommends using the phrase, ”breastfeeding mothers and lactating parents.”
The ABM noted that although the UN used the phrase “LGBTI,” the organization preferred to use the phrase “LGBTQI+” because, they explained, “it includes intersex people as well as others who identify outside of specifically labeled groups,” like “gender-diverse” people.
Transgender-inclusive language like that recommended by the ABM has been implemented in some hospitals in England. That development led to TV host Piers Morgan railing against the language in February and arguing that it divides people.
“I want transgender people to have respect and dignity and equality,” said Morgan on “Good Morning Britain.”
“I don’t think you get there by telling midwives to stop using the term ‘breastfeeding’ because it may upset a few people when 99% of the people in there are breastfeeding. It’s nonsense, and this kind of PC-cop nonsense with the language … it has the opposite effect to what you think it does,” he explained.
“It annoys people,” Morgan concluded, “it doesn’t bring you any inclusivity. It becomes exclusive; it alienates people.”