304 F. Giles
MacDonald and his partner went to unusual lengths to ensure a con-
tinuous supply of donor milk across the first nine months of Jacob’s
life, when he began to accept solids. It is a story of resounding success,
not only for MacDonald’s use of an at-the-breast supplementer when a
transgender man (or anyone) has only a small amount of breast tissue,
but also for the viability of a nine-month period of sustained breastmilk
donation—from friends, neighbours, and strangers, and via the Internet
or through word-of-mouth. Not only were women, often with the help
of their partners, donating their breastmilk, with its attendant commit-
ment of time, effort, hygienic expression, storage, and shipping pro-
cesses; they were also in some cases happy to donate their breasts and
to cross-nurse, as Tara does one night when out with MacDonald and
Jacob, saying ‘My boobs are your boobs!’ ( 2016 : 167). The relationships
made possible by MacDonald and his partner’s quest are uniquely close
and enduring.
Towards Social Maternity
The bioethical underpinnings of MacDonald’s experience closely echo
the findings of Karleen Gribble’s research, where the typical answer
to the question ‘why do women donate?’ is ‘I’m happy to be able to
help’ ( 2014 : 251). Other research shows that women have pumped to
build their supply, only to find they produce an amount sufficient for
their baby, and are then keen to share the excess, stating their hope that
mutuality might result, and that others might do the same for them,
if needed (Azema and Callahan 2013 ). Unpaid wet-nursing, cross-
nursing, or breast-sharing has also been shown to free mothers for other
activities, just as babysitting does at a later age or for formula fed babies
using bottles. Here, reciprocity and consent are key to a successful and
ethical exchange (Giles 2003 ; Gribble 2014 ; Shaw 2010 ).
In MacDonald’s case, the wider net cast in his search for donors
expanded his social network, much along the lines advocated by Robert
Putnam in his classic study, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of
American Community, which describes the increasing social isolation of
individuals in contemporary US culture ( 2000 ). Putnam’s advice is to
http://www.ebook3000.com