Parental Partnership: Supporting Breastfeeding Together

Author Bio: Saira Mehboob Ali Lalani is a Instructor with the Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery, Pakistan.She is a MScN Graduate Nurse from AKU-SONAM.

The most important factor in promoting an infant’s health during their early years of life is breastfeeding. For the baby, it is their only source of nourishment. Although breastfeeding is a mother’s biological duty, men can play an equally important role in helping a mother and her child navigate this lovely and natural journey.

Fathers can support breastfeeding in the innumerable ways:

Emotional Support

It takes a lot of compassion and support to initiate and maintain breastfeeding in mothers. In order to help them and give them emotional support, fathers are the finest role models at that time. Fathers can provide positive reinforcement, be an active listener to the mother’s feelings, validate the mother’s difficulties, reassure, boost their confidence and appreciate them. The nursing mother feels contained thanks to this emotional support.

Physical Support

Fathers can offer practical assistance and support during the breastfeeding process. Mothers need physical support because this is an exhausting process. A father can help his child maintain the right breastfeeding position, support the mothers back by adding extra pillows, give them back rubs, provide them a glass of water or milk while they’re nursing, and control distractions by watching other kids. If the mother is too tired to nurse, they can hold the infant in the feeding position. After the breastfeeding session, dads can give their infant a burp. This will help the mother carry less physical burden.

Household Support

Assisting with domestic tasks is another relief a father can provide to their wife during the nursing journey. such as cooking quick meals, supervising housekeepers, grocery shopping, watching over other children, cleaning and organizing the home, and performing other household chores. This will make it easier for the mother to focus more on nursing and would support her in giving the baby the demand feeds. They will finally have a healthy baby because she won’t ever ignore the feeding cues in this way.

Financial Support

Financial support is also very crucial in providing comfort zone to the new mothers. Husbands can support them financially by managing essential items for breastfeeding like breastfeeding pumps, doctor’s consultation charges, food expense, baby’s accessories, breastfeeding friendly clothes etc. It gives a sense of relaxation to the mothers that their needs are being fulfilled. Many mothers quit breastfeeding to join their jobs as soon as possible so this relieve can facilitate mothers to continue breastfeeding for the recommended time without any stress of holding responsibilities.

Advocacy

Fathers can be quite important in supporting their mothers and babies in a variety of ways.
Families who oppose exclusive breastfeeding, colostrum (the first milk), feeding in the first few days after delivery, and other breastfeeding practices are common in many cultures. In this situation, the father is the one who can support the mother and child in front of the family and assist them in adhering to the recommendations provided by the medical professionals. However, fathers can also promote a nurturing atmosphere at home and in public areas. Fathers might create support groups in their town to educate other fathers on how to assist their wives throughout the nursing stage.

These are a few of the strategies a father can adopt to ensure that this journey is fruitful and enjoyable and that the result is a healthy baby. A happy family will result from this as it will also deepen the link between the parents and child.

References

Montigny, F., Gervais, C., Larivière-Bastien, D., & St-Arneault, K. (2018). The role of fathers

during breastfeeding. Midwifery, 58, 6–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2017.12.001

Ogbo, F. A., Akombi, B. J., Ahmed, K. Y., Rwabilimbo, A. G., Ogbo, A. O., Uwaibi, N. E.,         Ezeh, O. K., & Agho, K. E. (2020). Breastfeeding in the community—how can partners/fathers help? A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(2), Article 413. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020413