Breasts are best! The new father's guide to breastfeeding

What’s a breast man to do?

If you can’t beat ‘em, how about joinin’ ‘em? In other words: how about pitching in by learning how you can participate in the breastfeeding of your infant? While your wife’s breasts fulfill their biological destiny (and yes, I’m sorry to report, their true purpose) you might as well get with the program and help out. Normal sex will resume one fine day, rest assured. It only seems like an eternity now.

Without a doubt, breastfeeding is the best diet for newborns. Numerous important health benefits for developing babies are well documented. Breastfeeding is also beneficial to your spouse. As her body readjusts in the aftermath of labor and delivery breastfeeding acts to ease post-delivery discomfort and promote the shedding excess weight.

An immutable bond is established between mother and child during breastfeeding. By joining in a type of physical union with her child, a mother may also tap into deep wells of spiritual well being. Some women report a pleasant feeling of drowsiness and peace while breastfeeding.

But don’t let me fool you. Other women report feeling discomfort or even pain. Some women struggle with lactation (milk production and release). And almost any woman will admit that breastfeeding is draining: literally, emotionally and physically. At times, profoundly draining. Suffice it to say that a commitment to breastfeed is a commitment to more-or-less brutal sleep deprivation.

And therein lies your duty as husband and father: Relieve your wife’s suffering in any way you can. If this means supplemental feedings with formula in the wee hours, so be it. If it means warming expressed (previously pumped) breast milk, so be it. Pitch in and do at least one feeding a night. If it means rubbing the ointments she comes up with into her swollen cracked nipples, or massaging gelatinous goo into her stretch marks, consider it a small price to pay for not being the one with aching tits.

Most infants begin sleeping through the night within a few months or less. So relief from midnight feedings is on the horizon. But many infants continue to interrupt their parents’ sleep for a year or more. Be prepared, and good luck.

The payoff

Besides helping your wife maintain her sanity, you’ll be doing yourself a favor, too. Yes it’s brutal to rouse yourself from deep delta-wave sleep at the ungodly hour of 3:13 a.m. to appease your infants’ crying. But it gives you the opportunity of a lifetime.

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