Dad aims to breastfeed his children

26-year-old has entered into an experiment, where he will stimulate his breasts to produce milk

Dad aims to breastfeed his children

26-year-old has entered into an experiment, where he will stimulate his breasts to produce milk

On Tuesday, he began stimulating his breasts with a pump in a bid to produce milk. Bengtsson's efforts are to be documented by Swedish TV8.

Bengtsson also maintains a blog on the station's website, the title of which translates as: The Milkman One Drop at a Time.

Milking It: Ragnar Bengtsson is a student of Stockholm University

At 3-hr intervals

Bengtsson is preparing to pump his breasts at three-hour intervals every day until the beginning of December. As a full time economics student at Stockholm University, he is not always going to be in a position to pump in private.

"I'm going to have to pull out the pump during lectures. But really it doesn't bother me if it makes people uncomfortable," he said.

Male lactation is a relatively common side effect of hormone treatments, but Bengtsson has no plans to chemically induce the process.
u00a0
"If it works and the milk turns out to have a high nutritional value it could be a real breakthrough," he said.

Two-year-old son
u00a0
Bengtsson has a two-year-old son who is in no way involved in the experiment, but the dad doesn't rule our breastfeeding any future kids.
u00a0
Not everybody has acclaimed his quest for fathers' milk, however. "Some people think it's completely sick," he said.

Sigbritt Werner, a professor of endocrinology, said it could be possible for Bengtsson to produce "a drop or two" after three or four months.

"Women breastfeed after they've been bathing in estrogen during a pregnancy, so obviously it takes some time.
u00a0
But if he works on it regularly he'll likely notice a layer of tissue forming beneath the areola and it should be possible to produce enough of the hormone prolactin to cause lactation," she said.

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels