Partner support for breastfeeding
Partners support breastfeeding by learning about it together before the birth, protecting the feeding parent's rest and getting an IBCLC involved early, then taking on the nappies, meals, snacks and household jobs so she can focus on feeding the baby.
Breastfeeding a newborn is more than a full-time job that often doesn't come easily. If your partner is planning to breastfeed, know that your support will be crucial to their success. Learn how to give them the support they need to help them succeed.
The essentials
- Learn about breastfeeding
- Learn about how breastfeeding works and why it's important, research common early struggles, and figure out what supplies you'll need.
- Talk with your partner
- Discuss how you both envision feeding your baby, talk about goals, priorities and expectations of one another, and make a plan for handling feeding together.
- Take a class together
- Take an in-person or online class and be an active participant who asks questions. Ask the teacher — or better, ask your partner — how you can support her, and source your support team before baby is born so you're not scrambling for help at 3am.
- Encourage recovery
- Make it easy for your partner to rest, do lots of skin-to-skin time with both parents and baby, and eliminate stress and obligations.
- Call in your support team
- Make sure your support team are on board with breastfeeding, help your partner access a lactation consultant, and source local support groups or breastfeeding resources.
- Be a cheerleader
- Stay positive, celebrate small wins, and give more encouragement and verbal support than you think is necessary. Hand over snacks and drinks — whatever she needs or wants — and acknowledge that breastfeeding is physically hard and mentally exhausting, all while she isn't in the best physical state of her life.
- Take care of baby
- Take over non-feeding baby care tasks, learn to recognise hunger cues, and give your partner time away from the baby for showers, eating and so on. This isn't self-care, it's a basic human right.
- Snacks and meals
- Make sure your partner is hydrated, keep ready-to-eat snacks on hand, and provide snacks and a water bottle at the start of each feed. Take over meal prep and grocery shopping — her job is to feed baby, yours is to feed her.
- Fill in the gaps
- Help keep the house running while your partner is busy feeding the baby, clean and wash pump parts, and take pictures of your partner breastfeeding your baby.
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This guide is informed by current evidence and clinical practice. Individual circumstances vary — it isn’t a substitute for advice from your own midwife, doctor or lactation consultant.