GOLD Speakers

Joy Noel-Weiss, RN, IBCLC, PhD

Trevor MacDonald

• Country: CAN

Biography:

Joy Noel-Weiss is a retired La Leche League Leader, an RN and IBCLC, and  an assistant professor at the School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, in Canada. Her nursing background includes working with families in community and hospital to provide postpartum and breastfeeding support. Professor Noel-Weiss has researched newborn weight loss, self-efficacy and breastfeeding, and ethical dilemmas among lactation consultants. Joy collaborated with Trevor MacDonald to lead a team from community to complete a research study that explored transmasculine individuals experiences with pregnancy, birth, and infant feeding.

Trevor MacDonald is a transgender man from Manitoba who birthed both his children at home and breastfeeds them. In 2011, he began writing a blog that quickly became popular with both transgender individuals and health care providers looking for information on transgender reproduction and infant feeding. Trevor started the first online support group for trans* individuals interested in birth and breast/chestfeeding. He has written tip sheets published by La Leche League Canada and has been quoted in numerous lectures, seminars, and university courses on gender and reproduction. He is the research coordinator and interviewer for a University of Ottawa project focusing on the experiences of transmasculine individuals with pregnancy, birth, and infant feeding.