The Australian newspaper reported on Saturday that the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) had developed a booklet about chestfeeding, which triggered outrage on talkback radio.
Rainbow Families, the peak body supporting LGBTIQ+ parents, paid the ABA $20,000 to create an educational booklet about lactating and chestfeeding for its community.
“ABA is not changing our use of mother-to-mother language,” the organisation said in a Facebook post.
“We will not be erasing gendered language such as ‘mother’ or ‘mum’ or ‘mothering’ from our vocabulary, and we have no future plans to adopt the use of language such as ‘chestfeeding’ rather than ‘breastfeeding’ more generally within the Association.”
Labor’s spokeswoman for women Tanya Plibersek hosed down talk of changing the language around breastfeeding.
“I’m not sure that there’s a huge demand for this from the Australian public,” she told radio station 2GB on Tuesday night.
“For me, it’s going to be breastfeeding. I’m not changing what I call it.”
Source: Breastfeeding association defends creation of ‘chestfeeding’ booklet