Dear Dads, We Play a Key Role in Breastfeeding, for Sure!

Let’s start with a problem. The biggest problem with becoming a dad these days; besides the stinging realization that we’re not the center of the known universe of parenting stuff, is that no one tells us how to do it.


We’re not like women, who seem to be in a lifelong training course for motherhood and who have a vast mommy-industrial complex of books and shows and magazines and expert friends at their disposal. The only experience we’ve had with fatherhood was through our own fathers – which, if we haven’t noticed, ain’t exactly the model for how things work anymore.



In facts, in the intervening years, mom-and-dad lines have blurred. Our participation in the daily life of your child is no longer merely interesting, it is required. We’re expected to know everything.


In the other side of the problem, many dads feel left out when it comes to breastfeeding; one of the most important thing in the first two years of the baby's life. We can't feed the baby ourselves and we envy the closeness the mother and baby share when nursing.


But, though we may not realize it, fathers play a key role in breastfeeding, for sure. Our support often makes the difference in whether a woman sticks with nursing and succeeds or gives up before she really learns how. Especially, through the sometimes-rocky first days and weeks of nursing process.

Now, let's start with the simple one: the best thing we can do (dads) is just be willing to support breastfeeding.

How do? I do understand all the way, it seems hard for many dads when it comes left out feeling in the first days and weeks of the baby's life. But, you know what? That's the best time to jump in and learn how to do other things that we'd never imagine before. In my short experiences, we could sing to our babies or carry them in a snuggly pouch, learn how to give them a sponge bath, or even get the baby and change a diaper before handing the hungry bundle to the mother.


I do encourage all of dads to shout the voices of breastfeeding support. We could learn together, share the knowledge, because the learning process is never ever stop; and we couldn't just get enough of it. If, books, magazines, and all the mainstream media do not take this as a sexy issue, then we have to figure out ourselves; for a good cause, for our beloved kids, in the name of fatherhood.


* Video di atas adalah Iklan Layanan Masyarakat AIMI (Asosiasi Ibu Menyusui Indonesia) ASI yang diluncurkan untuk menebar pesan bahwa peranan ayah sangat penting dalam proses dan keberhasilan menyusui.