Hello Friends,
I just received a newsletter from an online birth group. This article was one
that caught my eye. Any comments from lactnuts? Anyone who is interested in
the entire article, email me and I will forward it. You can try to access it
at:
http://www.efn.org/~djz/birth/birthindex.html
I look forward to some interesting discussion on this topic!!!
Roni Chastain, RN, LCCE, FACCE
Long Island, New York
"When Fathers Breastfeed
by Laura Kaplan Shanley
I first became interested in male lactation in 1978 after reading Dana
Raphael's book, THE TENDER GIFT: BREASTFEEDING. Although Raphael only dealt
with the subject briefly, she did say that men can and have produced milk
after stimulating their nipples.
My husband, David, and I were intrigued with the idea. We had just had our
first unassisted homebirth and were excited about applying our positive
thinking techniques to other aspects of our lives. Although Raphael had
written about milk production through nipple stimulation, perhaps, we
thought, David could do it simply through suggestion. He began telling
himself that he would lactate, and within a week, one of his breasts swelled
up and milk began dripping out. When we excitedly showed my father (a
physician) David's breast he said, "Obviously there's something
physiologically wrong with David." The fact that David had willed himself to
do this, did not impress him. We knew, however, that this was yet another
example of the power of the mind.
Still, we were not ready for David to actually nurse our child. At the
time, we were involved in a court battle primarily due to our unassisted
birth, and we did not want to add to our problems. I had mistakenly told a
nurse about David's "success" and she did try to use it against us in
court. Suddenly we were not just nuts who had given birth without a doctor or
midwife. We were nuts who believed men could breastfeed! Fortunately, the
judge did not find this relevant, and we won our case. At any rate, soon
after producing milk, David told himself he wanted it to stop, and within a
week his breast returned to normal. We didn't give it much thought after that
until years later when I came across a short article called "Male Lactation"
by Professor Patty Stuart Macadam of the Department ofAnthropology at the
University of Toronto (Compleat Mother magazine, Fall, 1996, Volume 43).
My interest in male lactation was peaked again when I recently received the
following letter from a friend of mine.
"I knew these two wonderful guys, very dear friends of mine for years. A
mutual acquaintance of ours was pregnant, unplanned, and did not want to do
the whole 'adoption thing' so when the guys approached her about taking the
baby, they just proceeded as if it had been a planned surrogate pregnancy.
The mother did not want to breastfeed but the guys were adamant that the baby
should get breastmilk. So when she was in her 7th month we bought a really
good quality breastpump and Ian started pumping, every 2 hours during the day
and once during the night. He was wonderful about it! He used an SNS after
she was born, with donated milk from several friends who were nursing. He was
making milk but not a full supply. By the time the baby was 12 weeks old he
was making a full milk supply! He stayed at home with the baby (he was a
massage therapist) and nursed her exclusively until
she was 8 months old!! I don't think many people outside their intimate
circle knew about it, I'm sure folks would have had a fit if they'd
known...but I thought it was wonderful!" While reading my friend's letter,
I suddenly remembered my mother telling me years ago that as an infant I once
tried to nurse on my father. I laughed about it at the time, yet I'm sure it
is a fairly common occurrence. I must say, at this point, that as open-minded
as I try to be, I basically believe that mothers are more suited to
breastfeeding than fathers are. I base this on the fact that mothers
generally produce milk, soon after birth, with little or no nipple
stimulation. If a mother is completely out of the picture, however, as in the
case of adoption, or a mother goes back to work and a baby is left in the
care of its father, I would rather see the father lovingly nurse his child
than have to resort to formula bottles and pacifiers. If nothing
else, he could supplement her breastmilk with his."
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