To wish men had breasts.....

[Writerwannabe83]

....so that when all baby wants to do is cluster feed for hours and hours on end throughout the night, it means the dad's can do their share and let the knackered mothers get some sleep

Bollock, cross post,

I ff.

Dp still doesn't do any night feeds (unless I wake him up which kinda defeats the object of letting me carry on sleeping)

That's a bit crap LJ!

I'm quite lucky really in that during the night my DH gets up to change DS, clean his eyes out (he has conjunctivitis) and also spend about 10 minutes coaxing DS to take his antibiotics via a syringe - no easy task! Baby is then passed to me for feeding. I'm probably up about 3 times in the night and DH always makes sure he sits up with me for one of those times as he says, 'We are in this together'. I'm still super jealous he gets to sleep on the other occasions though whilst I'm sat up for hours with a baby hanging off me

It isn't even like I can properly nap in the day like he can, because as soon as DS needs feeding I have to be woken up

My DH keeps telling me he's tired.....
I just bite my tongue

To be fair, he did do some of the night feeds at first and still will without complaining if I kick him out of bed, but we are very lucky and 5 month dd only wakes up once a night now.

There's a Viking Saga where for some reason one of the Vikings has to breast feed his baby. So if a Viking can do it...

So, men could breast feed, it's cultural rather than biological that they don't. wigglylines

So, let's make a big long list of all those other cultures where men breast feed.

I'll let someone else start...

Surely hormones play a part in lactation, don't they? Which is why some men develop breast tissue and even leak drops of milk - hormone imbalance. Is it cultural that giving birth stimulates milk production?

Sorry for thread hijack OP. For what it's worth, I sympathise.

wigglylines I'm not sure that your source material is reliable.

However well done indeed to Golferman for encouraging his DCs to latch on. That must have been good for all concerned.

Yes milk production is triggered by hormones, but the body will produce those hormones if the nipple is stimulated enough.

Not a lot of research has been done into this (unsurprisingly!) but men can produce milk in the right circumstances, I promise you. There are rare historical records of men feeding infants (not fruit bats, human men!)

Can't look it up right now but I will do and come back.

I think in general men can't produce milk though. There is a tribe in Africa where men parent 50% exactly and baby does latch to breast daily but only for comfort not food. Ie like a dummy. It's some tribe of Pygmy people but I can't remember who.
It's because they are so normadic and the Pygmy tribe are smaller than average human, that men take over carrying and caring for baby half the time as easier as the women are smaller still, but the babies/ small toddlers are same size as average human at this point.
Means the men travel with babie and hunt to next camp, and the women generally follow behind slower gathering fruit/ nuts on route

Oh and you can get dh to help also at night. I would feed, then he would burp and resettle

OK, I see someone above has already posted a link to a Scientific American article "Strange but True: Males Can Lactate"
. Pretty credible source I'd say!

This article documents a man's attempts to produce milk. Although he was ultimately unsuccessful it has some interesting ideas and links, and claims a reference to male breastfeeding in both the Bible and the Talmud.

Man Milk: My curious quest to breast-feed.

OK, OK, it's a fake (I very strongly suspect) but really interesting to actually see it, given the OP's question.

If it was possible, there's no logical reason why not, is there? But is does feel a bit weird to see a man feeding doesn't it? (Probably because we're just not used to it though? That's how cultural influences work, isn't it?)

Nah, think of the potential for conflict and arguments.

You want to breastfeed, he doesn't (but you feel he's just saying this to get out of doing nights). He wants to breastfeed, you don't (but he thinks you are just saying this to get out of doing nights). He wants extended breastfeeding, you want to introduce a bottle. "It's my turn to feed" "But my milk's just come down" "It's your turn to feed" "My nipples are killing me"

Sometimes nature knows best

MEN CAN LACTATE?????
Why didn't I know about this before??
Sorry for shouting but that's incredible.

DH wishes he could breastfeed "I'd love to have that close relationship" he says, although, he wasn't so keen when I had cracked nipples and was wincing with each latch.

He gets up in the night too but I tell him to go back to sleep as he works long hours. He insists on burping and settling her though and by this time I've fallen asleep.

Despite all this, it's still tiring as she wakes up every hour!!

There is a tribe in Africa where men parent 50% exactly and baby does latch to breast daily but only for comfort not food. Ie like a dummy. It's some tribe of Pygmy people but I can't remember who.

If you can't remember who or what, then you are just talking bollocks. I also find the 'reference' to 'some tribe of Pygmy' as very, very lazy, if not worse.

Either research you notions, or shut up!

The Aka tribe.

I can't believe dad's get up during the night when the mum is bf! Dd is 9 weeks. Dp has never got up to wind or change her or let alone to latch her on! Why would both of us be up?

I just wish the lazy git would clean up or look after the other dc...

If men could bf I know ours would be ff as dp would never get round to it!!

I like the sound of the Aka Tribe, not perfect but better then the West.

No, men can't lactate

DH gets up and I'm BFing. I had a CS so can't lean in and out of the cot too easily, although at 6wks its now much easier but he still does it. I feed baby off one side while DH sleeps. Then DH changes the baby. Then I feed from the other side while DH sleeps. Then DH put him back to bed and tucks him in while I sort myself out and we both go back to sleep. When DS wakes up at 6am for his first feed of the day I feed him then DH takes him downstairs and feeds ou other two DC while I have an extra half hour or so of sleep. That'll probably end next week though when he goes back onto earlies.

I've told him to get himself back off to sleep. I've said he doesn't need to get up especially when he has work the next day. He says he's not up for as long as I am (he goes back to sleep while I'm feeding) and he does it because its not fair to leave me to it, he wants to help.

Oddthomas your dh sounds lovely!
I'm seriously jealous...

Congratulations on your baby & wishing you a speedy recovery from the cs.