Breastfeeding men project

[Bittermints]

There was a report on this on the BBC London news just now. A young female design student has produced a kit to enable men to breastfeed. She did finally mention near the end of the segment that not a single man has yet tested it. She wants to issue men with some sort of pump thing and domperidone, the drug which is banned in the US but which the US transwoman who 'breastfed' a baby last year bought in Canada. (To be fair, I think I read that domperidone is used here to help women with breastfeeding issues, but not men.)

Her rationale is that men often suffer from depression after a baby is born because they feel excluded and one of the things they struggle with is that the mother is feeding the baby and they can't.

My answer to that is Get over it! This is how it is. If the mother wants to breastfeed, your role as her partner and your baby's father is to support the mother. If she doesn't want to breastfeed, then you can get stuck in with bottle feeding. Either way, you can change nappies, bath and dress the baby, take the baby out for a walk, give your partner a chance to sleep, make your partner a cup of tea and a sandwich, do your share of the tidying, cleaning, cooking, shopping, washing up, laundry etc etc etc.

What you don't need to do is take hormones which would be passed on to the baby through this 'milk'. FFS.

Whatever liquid a man is excreting from his nipples, I would need a lot of convincing to agree that it would be a good idea to let a newborn baby drink it.

Jesus the caution over drugs for breastfeeding women is (rightly) so high, how could anyone possibly think this was a good idea. Especially if the poor baby already has a perfectly good lactating mother, honestly who gives a shit if the father feels fucking left out. There's a million and one other things he could be doing.

Oh just fuck off!
Men and women are different.
Only women can get pregnant, give birth and breastfeed.
Men cannot do any of these things.
There are plenty of ways a dad can bond with his baby without breastfeeding.

Ever since giving birth I've been unable to run without wetting my pants. My husband never complains but I know it makes him feel left out and depressed. Is there anything you can do for him Msdesignstudent?

She said this morning on TV that the father would have to start taking this drug as soon as the mother found out she was pregnant. So 8 months of drug taking with a banned drug? Sounds sensible.

I’d rather these people found a way for men to have periods for us. Now that would be useful.

The drug she mentioned has huge side effects, it’s fucking madness! I don’t know how the presenter kept a straight face!
Meet The Fockers was the first thing that came to my mind, but at least de Niro character used his daughter’s 🥛.

It's ridiculous... men and women are biologically different, why is it so hard for some people to accept this?

But domperidone is banned... really? I buy it over the counter in Switzerland for occasional opiate-induced nausea (with my doctor's blessing, she would prescribe it if I wanted her to).

I can't wait for her to have a child...

So wonderful for all the women struggling to breastfeed, to know that all men need to do to be better at it than them is take some drugs and buy a kit. Well goodness, it's that straightforward, anyone can do it, just not you ladies...

fullcreamweb.blog/2018/10/31/he-can-do-it/

Imagine if the father of your child was so deeply self-involved and narcissistic that he demanded (or even requested) this? Wouldn't you run a mile?

If a man wants a bond he can have skin to skin contact, be involved as much a possible and have an equal relationship in bringing up baby when at home/not at work.

Surely that medication would go into the breast milk and harm baby too. Its already hard enough for mums being told what they should and shouldn't do now this person wants to add another dimension.

Nothing should be done to contribute to the mothers mental decline.

This isn't about the child's need to feed isn't about an adult's selfish needs. That is what formula is for. I know mums who are so upset and feel that they have failed their babies by not being able to breastfeed. For them not just about the milk its about the different bond they could have but doesn't stop them from loving and putting their babies first.

That design student is ridiculous.
I'm angry for women here. Maybe she should have put more effort into supporting woman who struggle to breastfeed.

Plus lets not even get started on what impact it could have on the child growing up it was a male not a trans woman doing it in public.

"Her rationale is that men often suffer from depression after a baby is born because they feel excluded"

Just when I thought my eyes couldn't roll any harder

Not just depression

Post natal depression

Any female specific really must be eradicated, mustn't it :(

"Breast milk is food, not emotional adhesive."

Right? People who promote this stuff (and the angry breastfeeding mob who attack women for using formula if she feels it is right for her) always seem to forget how alienating to babies who have to be in foster care or who are adopted.

And I don't mean as in made better

I mean as in not talked about at all
Or changed to include men

Men do not go through through pregnancy childbirth massive hormonal upheavals and probably have their bodies permanently changed / damaged

Raising awareness of men's mental health is great but call it something else ffs
Calling it pnd is insulting to women

Saying the solution is to take baby from mothers breast, jeopardise supply etc and give it to dad so he can feed including cocktail of drugs...

Such blind absolute putting men above both women and children, and not even realising that's what you're doing. At least I assume the inventor doesnt realise. Who knows.

I have a failsafe, tried and tested way to fix relationships in the bleary weeks post birth. It stops fathers feeling excluded, it promotes breastfeeding and helps the mother appreciate the father more, it helps foster a strong bond between the father and the baby.

Fathers : first two weeks? CHANGE EVERY SINGLE FUCKING NAPPY. Thereafter? CHANGE EVERY SINGLE FUCKING NAPPY WHEN YOU ARE IN THE VICINITY OF YOUR BABY.

I might try and flesh that out into a parenting book.

It wouldn't work unless you had twins. One baby couldn't keep two people's milk supply going.

Or you'd have to pump everytime the partner fed. What an absolute faff and waste of time. There are other ways to bond and once men found out how hard breastfeeding actually is they would soon give up.

goo.gl/images/ALV8aU

stillathing

I do find it slightly bewildering that I was recently told at the chemists that I couldn't get a prescription for a muscle cream due to it being contraindicated while breastfeeding (not a newborn, he was almost 2 years old!) - yet the concept of giving questionable, unnecessary drugs for the poor little excluded father somehow passes muster by the BBC interviewers...?