{"id":659843,"date":"2026-08-27T20:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/659843\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T20:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:36:15","slug":"fury-as-breastfeeding-event-persists-with-kinksters-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/659843\/","title":{"rendered":"Fury as breastfeeding event persists with ‘kinksters’ speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women are protesting that a HSE-sponsored breastfeeding conference to be held in Galway next month is persisting with a decision to platform a man who had previously presented on \u201cinducing lactation for Kinksters\u2019. Every sane person will agree with them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One Councillor says that she has \u201cbeen contacted by midwives and lactation consultants who are deeply unhappy about this invitation\u201d and that some have told her that they completely oppose the decision to platform him and believe the invitation should be withdrawn.<\/p>\n

I breastfed all my children, greatly assisted in the all-important first few days by the comprehensive knowledge of, and guidance from, my own mother whose expertise had not been stymied by the ridiculous swivel to formula embraced by the healthcare system when she was having her children. But despite a shift back to state programmes of support, Ireland now has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world.<\/p>\n

Lactation consultants are meant to provide said support and encouragement to new mothers, but I\u2019d wager their latest foray into lactation support for men won\u2019t do anything to boost breastfeeding \u2013 but may instead taint the image of what is a decidedly beneficial and natural process with a very unsettling association with weird and disturbing sexual gratification.<\/p>\n

US-based speaker, Jacob Engelsman, will lecture on \u2018lactation support for gender diverse families\u2019 at the Galway conference being held in October by the Association of Lactation Consultants in Ireland (ALCI) which is a HSE-sponsored body \u2013 despite the furore developing around his conclusion.<\/p>\n

The rights organisation, Genspect, points to one of Engelsman\u2019s previous presentations entitled \u201cInducing Lactation for Kinksters\u201d, and to his CV which states he spoke on lactation at Frolicon, \u201can adult lifestyle and fetish convention held annually in Atlanta, Georgia with substantial programming around kink, BDSM, sexuality, polyamory, LGBTQ+ relationships and alternative sexual\/family cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Genspect says that Engelsman \u201cpromotes some practices that many people find highly objectionable\u201d \u2013 and note that the ALCI have now changed the term breast milk to \u201chuman milk\u201d.\u00a0 They also state that: \u201cMen cannot breastfeed babies. It is not normal or healthy for a male to lactate; in fact, it usually signifies a serious medical issue like a pituitary gland tumour, thyroid problems, or liver or kidney disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engelsman\u2019s book, Lactation for the Rest of Us, offers an insight into the speaker planned for the Galway breastfeeding conference \u2013 particularly his view that \u2018cis-men\u2019, that is men who are not transgender,<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are several reasons a person may choose to lactate regardless of whether they can gestate a child\u2026a non-gestational parent might choose to induce lactation as a way to feel emotionally closer to the baby, assert their own feelings of parenthood, gender euphoria, or just for the unique experience of it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

But then he adds later in the book (page 152): \u201cAs to the question of why they would want to, it seems reasonable to believe that cis men want to lactate for the same reasons as anyone else. Which is to say, usually to feed and bond with their baby and to a lesser extent for curiosity, fun, or sexual gratification\u201d.<\/p>\n

Has the ALCI and the HSE lost their collective minds? Who wants to host a person who makes such disturbing statements? The words \u2018baby\u2019 and \u2018sexual gratification\u2019 should never appear in the same sentence unless you\u2019re reporting from the court.<\/p>\n

There has understandably been a very negative reaction from many women to the idea of men seeking to breastfeed a baby for \u201cfun or sexual gratification\u201d. Wicklow Women for Women says \u201cthe creeping normalisation of behaviours that were once considered shameful continues apace. Ireland has crossed a new line though, with a national conference for lactation consultants hosting a man who specialises in helping men lactate for \u201ccuriosity, fun, or sexual gratification\u201d. If this is not the thing that wakes people up, what on earth will it be?\u201d<\/p>\n

Genspect says women \u201cdo not breastfeed to assert feelings of parenthood or to experience gender euphoria, or just for fun or sexual gratification\u201d. I agree. Breastfeeding can be difficult to begin with, but is hugely beneficial to baby. How can it possibly be argued that an attempt at breastfeeding can give sexual gratification to a man? If a pump or some other paraphernalia is being used instead of a baby, the creepy, disturbing weirdness of the fetish remains.<\/p>\n

In his book, Engelsman also advises:\u00a0\u201cLet someone else take care of your baby when you\u2019re high or drunk. Beyond that, drug or alcohol use is rarely a deal-breaker for giving a baby your milk\u2026 The main problem with feeding your baby while you\u2019ve been drinking is that you\u2019re impaired regarding motor skills and decision making. Put simply, you\u2019re more likely to drop the baby if you\u2019re drunk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right. Is that going to be included in the HSE\u2019s next breastfeeding booklet for new mothers? Have we all just gone mad? And why are we allowing ourselves to be caught up in this degeneracy?<\/p>\n

ACLI RESPOND TO CLLR T\u00d3IB\u00cdN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aont\u00fa councillor Emer T\u00f3ib\u00edn managed to get a response from the ALCI when she wrote to say that she was \u201cwriting to raise serious concerns about what appears to be an increasing effort to embed gender ideology within the provision of breastfeeding support and maternal and infant healthcare in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

I am particularly concerned about the forthcoming Association of Lactation Consultants in Ireland conference, where Jacob Engelsman has been invited to present on supporting gender-diverse families. I have been contacted by midwives and lactation consultants who are deeply unhappy about this invitation. Some have told me that they completely oppose the decision by ALCI to platform him and believe the invitation should be withdrawn.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She adds that \u201cthe State provides funding to organisations involved in breastfeeding support. Public funding is entirely appropriate where it helps mothers and babies access high-quality, evidence-based support. But public funding should not become a mechanism for embedding contested ideological positions into women\u2019s healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cllr T\u00f3ib\u00edn then asks if the Department [of Health] believes that language such as \u201cchest feeding\u201d and the promotion of lactation for people who have not given birth should form part of publicly supported breastfeeding education \u2013 and says that \u201cwomen should not have to enter a healthcare setting concerned that the biological reality of motherhood and breastfeeding will be treated as something that needs to be redefined or qualified.\u201d<\/p>\n

As you\u2019d expect, the ALCI responded with a couple of pages of pure waffle about how Engelsman\u2019s \u201cprofessional work and educational experience focus specifically on supporting gender-diverse and LGBTQ+ families within lactation care\u201d \u2013 adding that \u201chis contribution is intended to help healthcare professionals understand the experiences and needs of these families and consider how they can provide respectful, appropriate and inclusive care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cALCI recognises that questions relating to gender, identity and breastfeeding may generate strongly held and differing views. Providing professional education on a particular area of practice does not require members to adopt a particular personal, political or philosophical position, nor does inviting a speaker constitute endorsement of every view that speaker may hold,\u201d they say.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And they argue that Engelsman\u2019s inclusion is \u201calso consistent with the wider Irish policy context. The Irish Government\u2019s National LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Strategy II 2024\u20132028 identifies health and wellbeing, participation and inclusion, and equality and non-discrimination as key areas for action, reflecting a whole-of- government commitment to an inclusive society in which LGBTIQ+ people can live healthy and fulfilling lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emer T\u00f3ib\u00edn has written back to ask that her concerns be fully addressed but it seems the ALCI are standing by their man, despite the likelihood that almost everyone thinks that a man who presented on inducing \u2018lactation for Kinksters\u2019 and includes babies, breastfeeding and sexual gratification in the one paragraph in his book on the subject, isn\u2019t fit to be included in a taxpayer-funded conference.<\/p>\n

Woke\u2019s Not Dead. It\u2019s being kept alive by your taxes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women are protesting that a HSE-sponsored breastfeeding conference to be held in Galway next month is persisting with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,1878,6,278784,278785,233348,11,12,15,16,5,278786,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-659843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-galway","tag-headlines","tag-jacob-engelsman","tag-kinksters","tag-lactation","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-sexual-gratification","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117169395208515173","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}