Central Saint Martins product design graduate Marie-Claire Springham has invented a hormone kit that enables fathers to lactate so that they can share breastfeeding duties.
Still in prototype stage, the "chestfeeding" kit contains a breast pump, a compression vest and hormones that help to stimulate lactation.
Springham believes that the kit could help to reduce the pressure on new mums while allowing dads to build a better bond with their babies.
Fathers-to-be would take progestin and domperidone
Springham said that the "chestfeeding" process would involve couples signing up to a pre-natal course at the beginning of their pregnancy. Once signed up, fathers would receive a nine-month supply of a drug called progestin, which is currently used as a non-oestrogen-based oral contraceptive pill. In both sexes, the hormone changes the breast tissue so that milk can be stored. Six weeks before the birth, the father starts taking a drug called domperidone.

Domperidone was originally used to treat gut conditions before it was discovered that one of its side-effects was inducing lactation. The drug is now used by mothers struggling to produce breast milk.
According to Springham, by taking the drugs over the course of nine months, fathers can stimulate ordinarily dormant breast tissue to grow milk ducts that will be ready to produce "chest milk" in time for the birth.
Springham made the design language "less intimidating"
The pump supplied wit...