New Mom Shares Grateful Video Of Her Husband In Scrubs In Bed Feeding Their Baby With A Chest Contraption — And People Are Concerned
He was just trying to help his wife by feeding their baby and giving her a break, but people were more worried about his attire.
Standret / Shutterstock What was meant to be a heartwarming video of a father feeding his newborn to give his wife a much-needed break sparked concern among people on the Internet.
After the grateful mother shared the video to TikTok, she was met with comments from people who believed that her husband’s attire was unsafe for their baby.
The video depicted a father feeding his newborn using a chest contraption stimulating breastfeeding.
In the video, which has been viewed nearly 12 million times, Dr. Zionko (Dr. Zion) films her husband with a wearable device that allows him to feed their newborn as if he was breastfeeding. He carefully cradles the baby as she drinks from the bottle.
“Teamwork babyyyyy,” Dr. Zionko captions the video, which is synced to the audio “Thank you to my man.”
While some people praised the father for finding a way to help out with feedings, others could not get over his attire while doing so.
Many people were concerned that the father was wearing scrubs while feeding the baby on the couple’s bed, believing it to be unsanitary.
Some people in the comments said that they were worried about the spread of germs that could come as a result of the husband wearing scrubs around the infant and in a bed.
“Why is he wearing scrubs on the bed?” one user commented. “I have this weird thing about outside clothes being in my bed. Can’t imagine being in bed with scrubs lol,” another user shared. “I wear mine to the animal clinic. I don’t put them anywhere but the wash. Even clean it’s just no lol,” another user wrote.
Photo: @dr.zionko / TikTok
However, others pointed out that the father could have been wearing his scrubs before work, or that he did not work in healthcare.
“Could be before work!! My man lounges in bed in his clean scrubs before work all the time,” one user shared. “He could just work the front desk or at a salon, they wear them too at a dentist's front desk,” another user suggested.
Mostly, people were just happy that the father was assisting his wife with feeding the baby.
“This is so attractive. You got a good one girl!!! Such a good daddy,” one user commented. “Feeding the baby in any manner helps with bonding,” another user noted.
On average, mothers who nurse their children will spend around 1,800 hours breastfeeding for the first year of their life. This is nearly as much as the average full-time employee works per year, with holidays, totaling around 1,960 hours.
Even if infants are dependent on breast milk only for food, there are ways fathers can help out with breastfeeding.
Like Dr. Zionko’s partner, men can utilize products that will allow them to “breastfeed” their babies, using express breast milk or formula to give mom some much-needed rest.
Luckily, these contraptions are becoming more common and available for men. At the 2019 SXSW festival in Austin, Texas in 2019, a tech firm from Japan showcased a breastfeeding system known as the Father’s Nursing Assistant.
The device allows fathers to feed their babies as breastfeeding mothers would, with the one of the artificial “breasts” holding the bottle of milk or formula, feeding the baby from one side. The device also tracks data regarding the baby’s nursing sessions and transfers the information to the father’s smartphone.
Fathers can also help with their babies by ensuring their partners are well-fed themselves, assisting with breast pumps, or just being there to support and soothe the baby between feedings, no matter if they’re wearing scrubs or not.
Overall, this dad certainly has the right idea in helping his wife find some time for herself amid having a newborn!
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.