Are hospitals stealing femininity?
By: Gracie Keith
Cancel culture is not a topic that is new to anyone, but the topics of discussion seem to get more and more triggering and leftist-focused the deeper we dive into cancellation. Everywhere you turn people are changing wordage or canceling wordage. The media does not hold back from putting those who are canceled on blast, but a topic we have not seen blasted yet is the attempt to change the phrase and action of breastfeeding to chest feeding in lactation offices and hospitals.
This blatant attempt to steal femininity from the action of providing for a child is just another attempt at being more inclusive, but how far will they go? Is this a generational issue or something all ages and genders are facing? Ella Chandler born into Generation Z was not even familiar with the term chestfeeding when interviewed. When asked about her opinion on chest feeding and what it was and meant to her she had multiple responses all coming back to “ I don’t understand what that means” even she thought the term chestfeeding was just “when they lay on your chest and drink from a bottle”, on the other end of the spectrum Theresa Keith a member of Generation X says she was also unfamiliar with the term but sees her generation as being “unaccepting” due to the track record of Generation X being against anything progressive. So, what is it about chestfeeding that has people so triggered? Keith said it takes away from the hard work women go through during childbirth and negates it.” Both Chandler and Keith though, they are generations apart agree that breastfeeding makes them feel “connected” to their child and or future child. So, what does this look like for the future?
The New York State Department of Health posted in April of 2023 the article “New York State Department of Health Awards $8.9 million to Promote Breast/Chest Feeding in Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities.” When do people begin to acknowledge a chest as a means of substance for a child? Dr. Gonzalez and Caroline Davidge-Pitts, M.B., B.Ch. (she/her), an endocrinologist and medical director of the Transgender and Intersex Specialty Care Clinic, routinely works with transgender, nonbinary and intersex individuals. They say gender-neutral terms, especially in medicine, aren’t meant to exclude anyone or imply that gender and sex don’t matter. “The push for gender-neutral terms is really to bring people into the conversation so that they’re included in important medical decisions and discussions,” Dr. Davidge-Pitts said,” This statement is confusing especially being quoted from a doctor, it is misleading for those who produce milk from a breast to be compared to someone who produces milk from their chest? Scientifically that is not possible. Like most trends, this will likely make a headline for a week and then fizzle out but is there something more we should be looking into?
“The National Education Association posted in an article that Hospitals would change the word “mother” in contracts to “birthingparent” to be inclusive to the LGBTQIA+ community.” This is where we begin to worry, not only are we changing a tradition that brought every one of us into this world we are dehumanizing women by stealing their titles. Many women go their whole lives wanting to become mothers and be able to breastfeed and for a hospital to acknowledge leftist views and take this away from mothers is more harmful than helpful.
Everyone is entitled to their preferences of wordage and pronouns but that does not mean they need to be instated into every birthing establishment with the intent of stealing a woman’s title and identity. At the end of the day, it does not matter what people call the act of feeding a child milk from a breast, scientifically milk is produced from abreast, and science does not lie.