Can men be wet nurses?

Wet nursing, the act of breastfeeding another woman’s child, has traditionally been seen as a female role. However, there has been some debate around whether men can produce milk and potentially serve as wet nurses too. In this article, we’ll explore the biological, historical, and social factors around male lactation and wet nursing.

Table of Contents

What is a wet nurse?

A wet nurse is a woman who breastfeeds a child that is not her own. Wet nursing has been practiced for centuries across many cultures as a way to provide nutrition for infants whose mothers could not breastfeed themselves.

Wet nurses would either directly breastfeed the child or pump their milk to be bottle-fed later. Wet nursing declined in popularity in the early 20th century with the rise of infant formula, although some women still work as wet nurses today.

Can men lactate and produce milk?

Biologically, men are capable of lactation and producing breastmilk. They have the same mammary glands and nipple anatomy as women. Milk production is triggered by the female reproductive hormones prolactin and oxytocin.

While men do not have high levels of these hormones naturally, they can produce milk if prolactin and oxytocin levels are artificially raised. There are a few scenarios where male lactation occurs:

Some male infants can temporarily lactate for a few weeks after birth due to the effects of their mother’s hormones still present after pregnancy.
Men with certain rare medical conditions involving hormone imbalances may spontaneously begin lactating.
Transgender women who are undergoing hormone therapy/gender affirmation treatment can often lactate and breastfeed infants.

There are historical reports of adult men being able to breastfeed by regularly putting infants to their chest to suckle over weeks/months. This stimulation raises prolactin levels and stimulates milk production.

So while not common, male lactation and ability to produce milk can occur given the right hormonal conditions.

Examples of male wet nurses

There are a handful of historical examples of men serving as wet nurses to feed infants:

A BBC article describes accounts of poor or enslaved men being forced to act as wet nurses in the ancient Roman empire. They would regularly put babies to their nipple to encourage milk flow.
Male wet nurses were also reported in the 16th and 17th centuries in parts of Europe during wartime when many women were absent. Again, the men were able to lactate with prolonged suckling stimulation.
Some African cultures have traditional reports of specific men being assigned breastfeeding duties alongside women in the community.

In more modern times, there have been a few cases of transgender women being able to breastfeed after taking female hormones:

In 2018, a transgender woman was able to produce enough milk to exclusively breastfeed her partner’s child for 6 weeks.
The UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender Health reports that a majority of transgender women can produce milk with the right hormone regimen, but that few have sufficient milk to exclusively feed an infant.

While uncommon, these examples show that some men are capable of breastfeeding children under the right circumstances.

Arguments against male wet nurses

There are some arguments against the idea of men serving as wet nurses:

Social norms: Through most of recent history and across cultures, breastfeeding has been seen as a distinctly female role. The concept of a male wet nurse challenges gender norms for childcare roles.

Milk supply: Male milk supply is generally lower than what is produced by lactating women. Few men could likely produce enough to be the sole source of nutrition for an infant.
Hormone therapy required: For a man to lactate, he would likely need to take prescription hormones like progesterone and estrogen to elevate his prolactin and oxytocin levels. This may be seen as too invasive or unnecessary.
Safety concerns: There are open questions about the potential health effects on a child fed exclusively by a male who has taken female hormones to induce lactation.

These factors may make people hesitant to widely accept or promote the concept of male wet nursing.

Benefits a male wet nurse could provide

There are some potential benefits to having a male serve in a wet nursing role:

Nutrition for adopted/surrogate infants: A transgender or lactating male could potentially provide breastmilk to feed adopted children or infants born via surrogate.

Male attachment/bonding: Having a male wet nurse could allow for father-child bonding and attachment through the act of breastfeeding.
Support if mother unable: A male wet nurse could provide nutrition if the birth mother is unable or unwilling to breastfeed herself.

In scenarios where a female wet nurse is not available, having a male lactate and wet nurse could offer nutrition and care options for certain infants.

Requirements for men to breastfeed

For a man to lactate and serve successfully as a wet nurse, a few key components would be necessary:

Take hormonal supplements or medications to increase prolactin and oxytocin levels and stimulate milk production.
Use a breast pump regularly to trigger nipple stimulation and signaling for milk release.

Allow sufficient time for hormonal changes to occur and milk supply to increase – potentially 8+ weeks.
Work with a lactation consultant to ensure proper technique, milk production, and nutrition for the infant.
Have ongoing pediatrician monitoring of the child’s growth and health while being fed breastmilk from a male source.

With patience, commitment and medical guidance, men could potentially induce lactation and serve in wet nurse roles. However, it would require concerted effort and access to hormonal and nursing expertise.

Is being a male wet nurse healthy and safe?

The health impacts of men breastfeeding are not fully known at this point. Potential concerns include:

High doses of female hormones could have side effects like mood changes, headaches, or nausea in the male wet nurse.

The different hormone profile in male breastmilk may not have the same nutritional content as breastmilk from a woman.
There could be unknown risks to the developing child being fed milk induced through artificial hormone therapy.

However, in the few recorded cases of men serving successfully as wet nurses, no ill effects were reported for the men or children involved. As transgender care and gender-affirming hormone treatments become more mainstream, there will likely be more data in coming years on the potential risks versus benefits of male breastfeeding.

Ethical considerations around male wet nursing

Some key ethical issues to weigh include:

Agency – Any man acting as a wet nurse should have full autonomy and consent to take lactation-inducing hormones and breastfeed children. Cases of forced wet nursing would be unethical.
Welfare of child – The health, nutrition, and wellbeing of the breastfed infant should be carefully monitored and prioritized.

Medical guidance – Physicians should contribute to the ethical determination of when and how men should potentially induce lactation and serve as wet nurses.
Motivation – Men should reflect carefully on their motivations to lactate and ensure they align with being able to provide appropriate care for the child.

With proper ethical checks in place, male wet nursing could potentially be implemented in limited cases in an appropriate and responsible manner.

Conclusions

While uncommon historically, it is biologically possible for men to lactate and potentially serve in the role of a wet nurse with proper hormone supplementation. However, social norms, ethical considerations, and unknown health impacts currently limit male wet nursing from becoming more mainstream.

In the future, as gender norms evolve and more transgender individuals pursue hormone therapies and gender-affirming surgeries, there may be increasing interest in and acceptance of the concept of male wet nursing. However, more medical research would be needed to fully determine the associated risks and ideal practices.

For now, male wet nursing remains a rare occurrence. But it opens up intriguing debates around the nature of gender, parenting, and infant caregiving roles in society today.