Mika Minio-Paluello, a male who appropriates female stereotypes and claims to be a mother, has caused outrage on the internet after posting a photo of himself simulating breastfeeding his baby.

He posted the photo after receiving backlash for appearing as a “struggling mother” in a news interview about soaring water bills.

Minio-Paluello tweeted, “But trans women can breastfeed, and I did breastfeed my child. Despite Pilgrim's odd tweet that I "simulated" breastfeeding, I used the standard protocol created for adoptive mothers - it works for trans or cis women. Two parents breastfeeding is actually very helpful & healthy!”

“In the end, I only breastfed my child for a few weeks. I then had to stop because I had a cancer relapse and didn't want to poison my child. Here's me on the bus to hospital for the 1st chemo round, feeding my child for the last time.”

The tweet has had over 30 million views and most people are outraged at his false claims. He tweeted back that the criticism was due to “right-wing hate” and “anti-trans” sentiment.

Twitter user, “Lola”, posted a thread explaining why men can pretend to breastfeed, but it is not the same as mother’s milk.

A new mothers milk:

- produces colostrum 

- adapts to the baby’s growth spurts

- is supply/demand

- is tailor made for that baby

- changes with hot weather

- helps fights baby’s colds

- is beneficial to the post-partum mother’s recovery

- regulates baby’s heartbeat next to mums

If you interrupt the mother’s feeding with other feeds you will affect her supply and this could end breastfeeding for her. 

TIMs (trans identified males) need twice as much Domperidone as women to simulate lactation, no evidence of safety testing for this.

Newborn formula would be a better match for a newborn baby’s needs that TIMs milk if mum can’t breastfeed.

TIMs - if you start trying to normalise this you break down important safeguards for the baby. Men have lactation fetishes and we need to protect babies from that. This is about the baby, not about ‘gender validation’. Show us you take safeguarding seriously and stop this.

Molly Myers also noted, “We actually produce different milk depending on if we have a boy or a girl!”

Australian breastfeeding expert Jasmine Sussex, who was sacked from her position for refusing to use trans terminology instead of the accurate descriptors such as “mother” and “breastfeeding” told Reduxx:

“Men who covet female physiology in this way are, in my opinion, either suffering from a serious delusion or sexually motivated by the idea of themselves as lactating women.”

“There is no evidence that drug-induced secretions from a male nipple are in any way equivalent to mother’s milk. It is more likely the secretions are akin to galactorrhea, which occurs when abnormal levels of prolactin are released from the pituitary gland in females who aren’t pregnant or males with disease.”

The bottom line is men cannot breastfeed. They try to mimic what only women can do. They do it for themselves, not for the sake of the baby.