A leading breastfeeding support group is allegedly demanding staff offer their services to transwomen and gay men who are on 'chestfeeding' journeys.
A whistleblower known only as Sue criticised the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) for promoting its services to LGBTQI+ families.
She said counsellors have raised concerns that they aren't equipped or comfortable with offering support to men or transgender women because the service was designed to support a birth mother through breastfeeding.
'We are only trained to provide peer support for mothers, not gay men, transmen, queer people, agender or asexual people,' Sue, who worked with the ABA for more than 10 years, told Daily Mail Australia.
She said five new training videos have been released in conjunction with LGBTQI+ Rainbow Families to train 1,100 counsellors in providing support for these families.
The videos, Sue claims, have diverted counsellors from their original mission of supporting new mothers.
She said counsellors have raised concerns that they aren't equipped or comfortable with offering support to men or transgender women because the service was designed to support a birth mother through breastfeeding
Sue is one of seven counsellors from the association who was allegedly suspended following accusations by other volunteers of bullying and harassment for using the term 'mother' on the ABA Facebook group.
The suspended counsellors fear the ABA will follow international breastfeeding associations in erasing mother-to-mother language and adopt terms such as 'parent' and 'chestfeeding'.
A spokesperson for the ABA strenuously denies such claims.
'We will not be erasing sexed language such as 'mother' or 'mum' or 'mothering' from our vocabulary, and we have no plans to adopt the use of the language such as 'chestfeeding' rather than breastfeeding more generally within the Association.'
Despite the reassurances, Sue says she and her fellow volunteer counsellors were told back in November that they 'should consider using inclusive language'.
'Then we were told we'd continue to use our mother-to-mother language but would provide tailored information and support for the LGBTIQ+ families. Then we were told our concerns about providing counsellors' support for men was inaccurate, misleading and wrong.'
Sue insists many of her colleagues did not feel comfortable offering their services to anybody other than mothers and their non-breastfeeding partners who are supporting them.
'We do not consent to provide that support. We are experts in mother-to-mother breastfeeding we have no skills in assisting in affirming men in their experimental attempts to breastfeed,' she said.
