A couple of years back, when I first learnt of ‘adult nursing’ I was greatly amused. Was there no depth these men would not sink in their fixation with boobs? Now they’d carried it off to a ridiculous extent. (Adult nursing) is the term used for men who enjoy being breastfed by a nursing mother! According to James, one of these rare (is it really rare, I wonder) breed of men: “I once tried adult nursing with my ex-girlfriend and loved the intimacy and comfort it gave me. I sought this woman who offered her milk for a fee, out to experience the same feeding. I know adult nursing is often sexual but I personally don’t get a sexual thrill from it. …

“ Some few months after this, I mentioned this particular habit to a male discussant on a different topic entirely but he let me into his experience.  “When my wife was breast-feeding our first child”, he said, “she looked so erotic with her boobs dripping milk that I felt aroused.

As soon as she finished nursing our child, I latched on to a nipple but I nearly gagged. The thing wasn’t as delicious as I thought.  “Wow, it seems adult nursing could be a real money spinner.  Carol, a 27-year old single mother who couldn’t afford to pay her rent said, she was introduced to adult nursing by a friend when she hit rock-bottom. This friend who seemed so normal and nice and who’d been a bundle of help in my grapple with single parenthood told me who charged men a lot of money an hour to let them drink her baby milk”, she said.

I was disgusted, it was the most perverted thing I’d ever heard. What did these men get out of it? Sexual kicks? Didn’t that make my friend some sort of prostitute? She said she’d been really struggling for money and discovered there was a market for adult nursing. It wasn’t sexual, she assured me.

The guys who came to her do it to feel mothered. It still sounded gross, but I now felt differently about it. With her help, I was able to get a list of men who would happily pay for the privilege. I nervously range them and requested they send photo IDs and recent test results showing they’d no sexually transmitted infections. I was surprised to hear they all sound friendly. But I was still worried, so I asked an open-minded male friend to act as my bodyguard.

“My first client was a 28 years old computer analyst who told me he’d tried it once and liked it. He booked a local hotel room and left instructions at reception that I should be taken to the room. as soon as I arrived. I waited anxiously for him and it all felt seedy and weird. When he arrived, he seemed friendly and relaxed. He paid me up-front and gave me something extra for my “bodyguard”. I then positioned myself on the bed, pulled up my top, unclipped my front-fastening maternity bra and gave him my left breast. I was sure he could hear my heart thumping against my ribs, in shame at what I was doing. If he did, he didn’t give any indication.

He just lay across me like a big baby and I cradled his head. He was silent, didn’t seem aroused. Yet his large lips and strong suction felt so wrong. It was strange and unnatural compared to feeding my little girl, and it felt as if I was betraying her. 1 was on the verge of tears and tried not to look at him. After 10 minutes, I asked him to swap breasts and he sucked my right for a further 10. Then he sat up. I cleaned my breasts with disinfectant wipes before pulling down my top.

“How was it:, I asked awkwardly. ‘“Great,” he said.`Can we do it again this week?’ Lured by money, I agreed. I was just glad it was over. Three days later, I saw him again and this time, it was easier. After 1 got to know him better, he started coming to my house.

“Initially, I felt guilty depriving my little girl-I’d planned to feed her myself for the first few months, at least. But the reason I was doing this was to keep a roof over our heads.

That’s how I squared it with myself. Over the following months, 1 developed a business-like approach to the whole process. Now I regularly see other clients too. I no longer look down on these men – adult nursing seems a relatively harmless desire, My daughter is eight months now and my milk is slowly drying up.

Still, I’ve made more than enough money to keep food on the table  regularly and a roof over our heads …

“When I had my third child”, said Emily in a newspaper interview, “I started ‘milk banking”,donating excess breast milk to premature babies at my local hospital. My husband and I had been blessed with three healthy kids and wanted to help give poorly babies the best chance of survival. When Emily was six months, 1 felt I’d given the best of my milk to help sick babies, so I stored the extra in my freezer and searched online to see if anyone would buy it. I imagined there’d be men with adult nursing fantasies, but that didn’t bother me. I just wanted to make money.

“I soon found a site with all sorts of people looking to buy breast milk. So 1 added my details:”Breast milk available, price depends on quantity”.  The first sale was to a woman wanting some for her four month-old baby. She couldn’t produce enough herself and I sold her 11 pints for about N12,000.-. I delivered them in person bottled wrapped in cool bags. When a man contacted me a month later, I was more cautious and used a special refrigerator courier services to deliver a pint. I’d upped my price too, realising I could sell a pint for as much as N10,000.

“A Multiple sclerosis sufferer bought a pint believing the protein could help his symptoms. A cancer sufferer hoped it would boost his immune system. Neither theory has been medically proven, but I liked to think I was helping.  Several months later, a local couple e-mailed, asking if I could provide two pints.1 was delighted with the generous fee, didn’t asked what they planned to do with it. Two months on, they still buy two pints every week.

“I hope to find proper work when the children are older. But for now, selling my milk means I can choose my hours and make time for the kids.”