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Dads may soon be able to breastfeed their newborn babies with first ever 'chestfeeding kit'
A London university student believes they've come up with a way for dads to breastfeed their baby
When it comes to having babies, it's the woman who has to do all the hard work.
She's got to grow a human inside her for nine months, push the infant out of her body and then make milk to nourish the little one. All while her partner watches.
But soon there may be a new way for the man to get more involved in the process and it's all down to a kit created by a university student from London.
Marie-Claire Springham, a product design student at Central Saint Martin's, is in the process of making a 'chestfeeding kit'.
The idea behind the product is for dads to be able to help mums who are struggling to breastfeed their newborns.
Still in the conception stage, the kit is yet to be tested, but contains a cocktail of hormones that the man would take while his partner is pregnant, in order to "grow milk ducts".
The main hormone is progestin, a form of the female sex hormone progesterone, which helps to stimulate production of milk-producing glands.
This would be followed by a round of domperidone which is often given to mums who are experiencing difficulties with breastfeeding as it encourages the production of prolactin, a hormone which tells the woman's body to produce milk.
However there is one major possible side effect to taking the female hormones.
Which is that the man could grow 'moobs' or man boobs, up to a b cup until they stop taking the hormones.
As well as the different hormones, the chestfeeding kit also contains a pump and a compression vest, which is very similar to a maternity bra.
Marie-Claire hopes her idea will help to stop fathers from feeling left out when raising their baby and believes the kit could be available in five years time.
But its possible that the product may never see the light of day, as doctors have urged caution and warned that there's no proof men can even grow milk ducts.
They're also not sure what impact the hormones will have on the male body and instead suggested other ways men could feel more included in the first few month of a baby's life, such as changing them and helping with bath time.
Speaking to The Sun Online, the 24-year-old student said: "I was trying to create an empathy tool, something that could really help when a mum was struggling to breastfeed and could help a dad be of practical use.
"Those two drugs put together create three of the four hormones necessary for a man to produce milk.
"The last one is oxytocin which is what triggers the 'let down reflex' and that's naturally produced when a man or a woman holds their child."
She went on to explain how she developed the pump to assist the 'let down reflex' and added that she believes it will take a full nine months for a man to prepare his breast tissue for breastfeeding.
Her design for the kit recently won an award at the Meaning-Centred Design Awards.
However in order to make the product available for purchase, it would need to be rigorously tested as it is not known how much milk a man could produce, or if it would even be nutritious for the baby.
