The controversy over men’s desire for breast milk is unlikely to go down, especially after it became one of the hottest topic in Tanzania parliament on Monday evening.
Men fighting for breast milk with babies, according to a cross section of MPs, is a kind of cruelty because it deprives the youngsters of essential nutrients, resulting in malnutrition.
Special Seats MP, Jacquiline Msongozi, made her sentiments known while debating the Ministry of Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups’ revenue and expenditure estimates for the fiscal year 2022/23.
Some men, according to lawmakers, suck their breastfeeding women because they have discovered that breast milk has nutrients that help them recover from hangovers.
She claimed that a group of guys had formed an unusual culture in which they are abusing children’s rights and jeopardizing the health of babies and moms.
“This has occurred in a number of locations. I encourage the ministry to perform the research since there are males who demand to suckle their wife when breastfeeding.” she said.
She encouraged the ministry to launch an awareness campaign to encourage males to stop denying youngsters access to their mothers’ milk.
Men who crave breast milk have been warned by the Tanzanian government in the past, that the scarcity of it could have a negative impact on the health of their kids and spouses.
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However, according to several studies, it is believed that when males suck their spouses’ breasts, the risk of breast cancer is reduced.
Some Tanzanian fathers, on the other hand, have gone overboard, resulting in child malnutrition and underweight babies.
Regardless of public awareness attempts, this tradition exists in East Africa more specifically Tanzania with Uganda and Kenya not left far behind.
Last August, during a ceremony to commemorate World Breastfeeding Week among women, Handeni District Commissioner Toba Nguvila warned men against the practice after a breast milk craze apparently swept Tanga.
The commissioner has it that some women have complained about their husbands developing a strange desire for breast milk, depriving their children of vital nutrients and leaving them malnourished.
Nguvila says the practice was promoted by the claim that it boosts men’s performance in bed and builds muscle growth.
Last year, Uganda’s state minister for health, Sarah Opendi, said that numerous men had adopted this unusual culture, further jeopardizing the health of infants and mothers.
Men were breastfed at least once a day for one hour before the infant was fed, according to a study funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund, undertaken by Kyambogo University in Kampala and the University of Kent, in the United Kingdom.
Some of the interviewees reported that it was stimulating and even stress-relieving.
