When raising children breastfeeding is often one persons role, but a lesbian couple have revealed that they both take turns with feeding their baby.
On Fitzy and Wippa’s radio show this morning Wippa shared a story his wife, Lisa Wipfli, had told him.
She was at a Melbourne baby and toddler show talking to new mums and families when one couple told her their story.
‘Two mums walked past with their kid and one of the mums said “the great thing about being in a same sex relationship and having a baby is that we can share the breastfeeding”,’ Wippa said on the program.
On Fitzy and Wippa’s radio show this morning Wippa shared a story his wife, Lisa Wipfli, had told him
‘She said “yeah my partner does hormone treatment which can bring on lactation and therefore we both feed the kid”,’ he added.
The couple told Lisa that it was the perfect arrangement because when it came to night time feeding they were both able to ‘share the load’.
‘[My wife said] “I would have loved for my husband to do that” and the woman said “he can, with the right treatment you can bring on lactation in men”,’ Wippa said.
This news was met with shock from the studio, so they sought advice from Dr Andrew Rochford to see whether it was true.
When raising children breastfeeding is often one persons role, but a lesbian couple have revealed that they both take turns with feeding their baby
The couple told Lisa that it was the perfect arrangement because when it came to night time feeding they were both able to ‘share the load’
Dr Rochford said that that this kind of treatment would ‘absolutely’ work so another women can breastfeed, even if they haven’t given birth.
‘Prolactin is the hormone that brings on breastfeeding and if you stimulate that enough you can bring on the milk production and start the breastfeeding from there,’ he said.
‘That just happens naturally when you give birth so when you get pregnant it fires up the prolactin pituitary gland.
‘That’s why women who give birth can breastfeed and if you bring it on in another woman they can also breastfeed.’
Dr Rochford said that that this kind of treatment would ‘absolutely’ work so another women can breastfeed, even if they haven’t given birth
Although it does work, you need to make sure you keep the hormone levels up, which is stimulated by the act of feeding a baby.
For those who are wondering where this could then allow men to breastfeed, the answer is yes.
‘Technically men can breastfeed. We are all born with the same apparatus to breastfeed,’ Dr Rochford explained.
‘We have milk ducts in our breast and nipples, but we don’t have the same amount of milk ducts that women do, we don’t produce the same amount of prolactin and we never really get to the point where we can produce enough milk to breastfeed [naturally].’