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Men and breastfeeding
I was looking around for the thread to latch on to (no pun intended), and I
figured this was probably the best one. In 1988 my wife had a baby girl (her third, my second). Like our previous daughter, we decided she'd be breastfed. Unlike with the previous daughter, however, this time I lactated. I figured this was a sort of sympathetic lactation as I watched my wife breastfeed my daughter. One thing that interested me at the time (and still does) is that I lactated only on the left side. I had no explanation for this at the time except that as we slept together, she was on my left. This strikes me as a very poor explanation. Anyway, neither my wife nor I encouraged my lactation, so it tapered off after I produced only a teaspoon or so of milk. Recently, I spoke with a friend of mine about this, and he did not believe it. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I saw a show on TV where a woman described how her husband was able to produce milk at will after about a week or two of putting his mind to it. I've successfully "wished" warts on my fingers away, so I figured I'd be able to stimulate myself to producing milk again, particularly since I know from experience that my body has the potential. So, partly out of curiosity, and partly in order to demonstrate to my friend that I was not a liar, I started to try to get myself to lactate again. It's been about two weeks, and I am producing miniscule amounts of milk on the left side again. Interestingly, the right side feels much like the left side did back in 1988 when I started lactating the first time. However, nothing apparently is being produced on that side. On the other hand, feeling around for the actual mammary tissue behind/around the nipple on that side, it seems to be more developed than on the left side. So far my efforts have involved only manual and mental stimulation. I'm considering getting a breast pump, or making one myself (suction cups and hose, the end of which I would suck on, in order to apply the right amount of suction). I don't think I'm far enough along for that, though. Massage (mostly behind the nipple) and manual stimulation of the nipple seem to be the most productive at this point. I told a female friend of mine about this, and I was very surprised by her answer. First, she was surprised. Then, she asked that if I was successful, would I collect it for her because she had never been breastfed and felt she was missing out on something. She'd heard it was good to breastfeed. Perhaps she was simply trying to surprise me as much as I surprised her, but then I got to wondering if there was anything to what she was saying. I know breastmilk is very good for infants, and colostrum, especially, is a way of boosting an infant's immune system. However, it seems to me that such benefits would not be imparted on an adult, who would have built up their own complement of immunities the long way. Now I find myself wondering things like: * Can I get the right side to produce? * How much can I produce on either side? * How can I stimulate more production? * Why am I doing this? * How can I discretely stimulate myself at work? I'm assuming here that for good results, frequent stimulation is necessary. * Should I consider hormone treatments? (Actually, I'm not seriously entertaining this idea, but it does come to mind occasionally) * Surprisingly, I'm more cognizant of my "breasts" now since I can feel them when, for example, I go down stairs. The manual stimulation I guess has made them sensitive to that kind of movement. (misty) wrote: These sites tend to lend a _bit_ of weight to men being able to breastfeed..not just lactate... nothing hard and totally scientific though. http://www.urbanlegends.com/medical/...lactation.html http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_093.html http://www.plasticsurgery4u.com/proc...ast/index.html (it's about a very common occurrance..men and boys growing breasts) etc. (remainder of post deleted) |
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