Dad hopes to generate breast milk with pump (Stockholm, Sweden)

RAGNAR BENGTSSON is the father of a 2-year-old. As a dad, he's not particularly dastardly by Dastardly Dad standards. But he is, well, a tad eccentric. And he does rank high in the "ick" factor. I can't imagine a lot of dads jumping on the pump your own breast bandwagon--even the FR guys who insist that they have "equal" or "sole" custody of breastfeeding infants.

http://www.examiner.com/x-12237-Transgender--Transsexual-Issues-Examiner~y2009m9d8-Ragnar-Bengtsson-Swedish-man-hopes-to-generate-breast-milk-with-pump

Ragnar Bengtsson: Swedish man hopes to generate breast milk with pump
September 8, 7:25 AM Matt Kailey

No, he’s not pregnant, but Ragnar Bengtsson, a 26-year-old student at Stockholm University, is going to use a breast pump every three hours through December in an effort to induce lactation.

The Local, a Swedish news site, reports that Bengtsson, the father of a two-year-old, thinks that he might eventually be able to breastfeed any other children he might have.

“Anything that doesn't do any harm is worth trying out. And if it works, it could prove very important for men's ability to get much closer to their children at an early stage,” he told The Local.

While endocrinologist Sigbritt Werner told The Local that it could be possible for Bengtsson to produce “a drop or two” after three or four months, it is unlikely that he will produce enough milk to breastfeed a child without inducing lactation through the use of hormones, something that he does not intend to do.

But while some people find the idea of a father breastfeeding to be “completely sick,” according the Bengtsson, the act of suckling, with or without milk available, is comforting for a child and can encourage bonding, Werner says.

Groups who insist that children need both a father and a mother in order to thrive should welcome Bengtsson’s lactation experiment as a potential means of increasing father/child bonding. Why do I think this probably won’t happen?

Gender roles are firmly entrenched, and Bengtsson is publicly transgressing them, insisting that he will use the breast pump even in public and during his university classes.

“But really it doesn't bother me if it makes people uncomfortable,” he says. “If they have issues with it, that's their problem.”

No argument here.