'I'm a father, even though I gave birth'

Trevor MacDonald has gone where few men have gone before. He's given birth. Twice. 

While he and his partner never thought they would have kids, they eventually decided it was something they would like to do.

 

"We talked a bit about adoption and felt like that could be potentially really difficult for us. Adoption can be a long, challenging process anyway but we were also worried that we might face discrimination. At a certain point we realized we had the anatomy between us to conceive and carry a pregnancy and that would actually be the simplest way to go about having a family," he said.

"I still had, and still do have, facial hair and a deeper sounding voice and so out and about in the world, even while pregnant, strangers never realized I was pregnant. I think I appeared like I had a really big belly, maybe a beer belly."

It was after his first child was born, when he sought breastfeeding support from La Leche League, that he really felt he was challenging the status quo.

"I asked at the end of my pregnancy if I could go to a La Leche League meeting and at first the answer was no because I wasn't a woman and that was really painful to hear."

I think that more than just about challenging the status quo, this is about being able to live one's life.- Trevor MacDonald

Eventually the organization changed its policies to acknowledge that men like Trevor need the same kind of support that breastfeeding women can access. And Trevor has been welcomed as a coach.