Trevor MacDonald

The board of La Leche League International (LLLI) reviewed the policy, citing its mandate to be a "nondiscriminatory service organization." A year later, they revised their policy to allow leaders to serve no matter their gender. LLLI spokesperson Diana West commented, “It was thought that only women could breastfeed. Once it became clear it wasn’t as straightforward as that, the policy had to change. We’re just trying to be on the right side of history. Yes, we took a year to do it, but we did it in a way that was fair and unequivocal.”

The group's research paper, "Transmasculine individuals’ experiences with lactation, chestfeeding, and gender identity: a qualitative study," contains the first known use of the word "chestfeeding" in the title of an academic paper, which is a term preferred by some transmasculine individuals to describe their lactation and nursing relationship. The paper is in the top 1% of the most-viewed academic research papers of all time.

MacDonald says “There is this assumption that goes along with the ‘born in the wrong body’ narrative, that if you are a trans guy you would want a hysterectomy and never use your body to carry a pregnancy.” He noted that none of the participants' surgeons discussed the potential for future chestfeeding before performing top surgery, and that “the range of experiences and showing more nuance, more complexity, about transgender lives is what is most important in this study."

In 2016, MacDonald became the first-ever transgender man to be accredited as a La Leche League leader. LLLI said in a statement to other leaders: "We recognize that any breastfeeding parent, regardless of whether they self-identify as a mother or father, should be - and is now - welcome to investigate LLL Leadership. There are other prerequisites that a potential Leader needs to satisfy, but being a woman isn't one of them.”

MacDonald's 2016 biography, "Where's the Mother? Stories from a Transgender Dad," has been added to the required reading list for Doula Trainings International, who commented that the book is "eye-opening for new and seasoned doulas alike." It was reviewed by Publishers Weekly as "frank, clever, and easy to process ... a refreshing and insightful narrative." The work has also received coverage in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Toronto Star, Buzzfeed, Gay Star News, Metro UK, The Advocate, Rewire, and on the Canadian Television Network's national newscast.

In 2015, several commentators claimed that MacDonald, who was attended by midwives during his pregnancies, had forced the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) to stop using gendered language such as "mothers" and "pregnant women." However, Snopes reported that while MANA did change some of the language in their core materials to clarify they welcomed transgender and cisgender clients in their scope of practice, those decisions were based on their own standards of care, inclusion, and position on gender identity, and not due to pressure from MacDonald or any other trans people.

In 2014, MacDonald formed a research team through the University of Ottawa which obtained funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to conduct qualitative research about transmasculine individuals' experiences of pregnancy, birthing, and feeding their newborns.

In 2012, MacDonald founded the international support group, "Birthing and Breast or Chestfeeding Trans People and Allies". The group currently has over 1700 members.

Trevor MacDonald (born 1985) is a Canadian transgender health researcher and author in the field of LGBTQ lactation and infant feeding. He is the first female-to-male transsexual to have been accredited as a leader with the breastfeeding support organization, La Leche League.