WATCH: How transgender woman breastfed her baby

File photo: Reisman, the study's co-author, said that at 6 months of age, the baby was "happy, healthy and very cute." Picture: Pexels

File photo: Reisman, the study's co-author, said that at 6 months of age, the baby was "happy, healthy and very cute." Picture: Pexels

Published Feb 20, 2018

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She told doctors that she wanted to breast-feed her baby.

She explained that her partner was pregnant but was not planning to breast-feed when the child was born, so she wanted to take it on herself. The 30-year-old, who is transgender, was willing to accept the risks.

Following months of hormone therapy last year, doctors say she might be the first reported transgender woman in academic literature to breast-feed, according to a case study published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Transgender Health.

The patient was also given a galactagogue and told to use a breast pump to increase prolactin, a hormone that helps with milk production.

A month into her treatment plan, she was producing "droplets" of milk and, three months in, she was producing about 8 ounces of milk per day, according to the study.

The study stated that after the baby was born, the patient breast-fed for the first six weeks and, during that time, the infant's pediatrician said "the child's growth, feeding, and bowel habits were developmentally appropriate."

She later supplemented feedings with formula because she was not producing enough milk, the study said.

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