Milkmen: Fathers who breastfeed - Unassisted Childbirth
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.While my husband David had no interest in nursing our son, we both were intrigued with the idea. We had just had our firstunassisted homebirthand 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 wa...