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from Social Issues
The "Brave New World" of
Male Breastfeeding
by Roy Waller
An article in the May/June issue of the gay and lesbian
magazine And Baby has added to growing interest in an
unusual question: Are males capable of lactation and
breastfeeding? If so, should gay men nurse the infants they
adopt?
David Glassman, psychologist and director of a Gay, Lesbian,
Bisexual, and Transgendered program in Philadelphia,
supported the concept. "As a gay male parent, why wouldn't
I want my child to have the same advantages in physical and
emotional development as other children?" Glassman asked.
He went on to say that the difficult experience of obtaining
a child to adopt "could motivate gay men to consider
entering a brave new world of male breastfeeding."
Feminist author Fiona Giles, author of Fresh Milk: The
Secret Life of Breasts, claims that there are "obvious
benefits" to male breastfeeding. While men have the
biological ability to produce milk, she says, the time and
effort necessary to induce lactation might be out of
proportion to the miniscule amounts of milk actually
produced--but for a gay man to hold a baby to his breast
"would be extremely beneficial to both the parent and
child."
Lactation consultant Susan Leisner of Buffalo, New York, on
the other hand, points out that there are many more
effective ways of establishing a deep and close bond between
a male parent of any sexual orientation and the child--such
as singing, rocking, skin-to-skin contact, and talking to
the baby with the parent's face in close proximity to the
baby's. "If a man came to me and asked me to help him
lactate, I would refuse," Leisner declared.
Laura Shanley, author of the book Unassisted Childbirth,
says in the article that she is aware of a few gay men who
have breastfed their babies. But, Shanley says, it is
difficult for these adoptive fathers to come forward and
speak of their experience out of fear of losing their
children.
All of the sources cited in the And Baby article, however,
point out the biological hurdles of inducing male lactation,
as well as the social stigma attached to the idea of men
breastfeeding their children.
Commenting on the article, NARTH's Joseph Nicolosi said,
"Indeed, the 'social stigma' attached to male breastfeeding
isn't something we need to break down, because a gay man
imitating a woman by nursing a baby is an affront to human
dignity. We were not created to masquerade as the opposite
sex--and no man can truly 'mother' a baby."
Source: "Breastfeeding: for Dads?" By Jennifer Newton
Reents, And Baby, May-June 2003, pp. 59-62.
Updated: 2 September 2008
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