Keeping Your Partner Actively Involved

How can my partner be an active, involved parent if I'm breastfeeding exclusively?

Just as your partner has already played a vital co-parenting role by supporting you during pregnancy and will continue to do so during childbirth, his parenting role will remain crucial as your baby makes the gradual transition from attachment to your body toward interaction with others in his world.

There are many ways to be a parent besides feeding the baby. Your partner can provide you with nutritious meals so you can better feed your infant, help with household chores so you can rest, play with the baby during awake time, and rock him to sleep by holding him against his chest and singing in a low, rumbling voice.

If actually feeding the baby is important to your partner, he can offer your expressed breastmilk in a bottle after the baby is at least several weeks old and has fully adjusted to the breast. The bottom line, though, is that each parent’s gifts to his child are different, but all are equally valuable.