My guess is that healthcare providers, interested in learning how much
breastmilk a newborn needs for healthy growth and development, are not
going to seek the answer from a journal article in Transgender Health,
describing in great detail the lactation inducement protocol used,
successfully, in care of a transgender woman. The folks reading this
article are likely to be working with gender nonconforming
clients/patients, and will find the well-described history of this
individual woman, and the treatment plan used for her, very helpful in
advising future patients/clients.

And my guess is the folks involved in the care of the baby at the time (the
parents; the pediatrician) were making sure the bub was doing OK. Indeed,
that is what the printed article tells us occurred.

That this article doesn't "prove"  its assertions by including a specific
definition of, and verification of, "exclusive breastfeeding" or "shared
feeding" [if any] or "supplementation" makes it no different from the vast
majority of research that discusses lactation. Even articles in JHL and BFg
Med -- journal focuses on lactation -- are sadly lacking in defining, with
specificity, what is meant by "breastfeeding," "mized feeds," etc. (And on
a side note, the fact that the formula supplementation was described **by
brand name** in the article from Transgender Health also conforms to way
more medical research than conflict-of-interest principles would allow.)

When a published case study like this comes out, and is fairly well covered
by the mass media to boot, it continues to diminish and marginalize the
populations that self-identify as trans if IBCLCs do not respect the
results as credible. Yes, of course, as IBCLCs we can have professional
curiosities.  So we Go. To. The. Source and ask the study author (their
contact information is right in the open access article).  Or, we write a
letter to the editor of the publishing journal.

I will repeat myself:  I think a peer-reviewed case study in a professional
journal, with statements by qualified researchers, and the baby's primary
healthcare provider, are credible.  We should share this case study
far-and-wide, to underscore that breastfeeding and human milk use are a
public health
imperative, inuring to the benefit of the population at large.

-- 
Liz Brooks, JD, IBCLC, FILCA
Wyndmoor, PA, USA
Director, Human Milk Banking Assn of North America (2015-17)
Adjunct Professor, Drexel Univ, Public Policy of Breastfeeding
"IBCLCs empower women and save babies' lives!"-Ursuline Singleton

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