The A to Z of Sexual History: L - Lactation

Breastfeeding is pretty erotic: A highly sensitive erectile organ enters a warm, moist cavity, where it is rhythmically massaged and sucked, until it discharges its dairy spunk into some kid’s mouth. While many people struggle to disassociate the pleasure of suckling from nursing a child, for others adult breastfeeding, or erotic lactation, is the zenith of sexual experience.

Erotic lactation is widely practiced, but not widely discussed, until you get onto the web forums where milk fetishists of the world unite. Tits squirting milk, electric breast pumping, breast milk in coffee and cereal, girls squirting their milky boobs on pussies, milky tits and dicks – it's all there and it’s all pretty depressing.

Most fetishes are a horrible relationship between man and porn, but lactophilia is pretty egalitarian, with many women struggling to convince their partners to suckle, or turning to daily pumping and hormone treatment to induce milk production.

Having the breasts suckled releases oxytocin – the love hormone. It’s the same hormone that is released after orgasm and causes that throbbing feeling known as uterine contractions. Some women have reported achieving orgasm while breastfeeding. While men who want to suckle clearly find the idea of tits dripping in maternal white stuff hot, many also say it’s about the emotional connection and intimacy of being in an adult nursing relationship.

One anonymous woman writes on a female sex forum, "Every day I discover more and more people who are into erotic lactation, and every day I feel encouraged to finally pursue it. I've never been pregnant, so I can only imagine the exquisite ache of full, heavy breasts demanding to be emptied. I just started pumping and have had only two whitish drops appear on my nipples, but I long for the day I can offer myself as a full meal."

And a 73-year-old replies, "There is nothing like letting down milk and having multiple orgasms at the same time. I had so much milk it was easy to share with friends. I still have large nipples and love to be suckled."

However, it does freak some women out; after all, if it makes you cum, it’s basically being sucked off by your child. A 1999 study found 33 to 50 percent of mothers found breastfeeding erotic, and 25 percent of those felt guilty because of it. In the early 90s, American Karen Carter was worried about some of the sensations she experienced while breastfeeding. She called a helpline and asked, "Is it normal to feel aroused while breastfeeding?" The call centre reported her for suspected child abuse. Her two-year-old daughter was taken into protective custody for almost a year and she was accused of abuse, then neglect and finally sex addiction.

Throughout history the image of the breastfeeding woman was dominated by your Virgin Mary types doused in holy light without even a of kinkiness in her halo. A common subject for painting is the Roman Charity story, where daughter Pero secretly breastfeeds her father after he is incarcerated and sentenced to death by starvation. When she is discovered by the jailers, her act of selflessness wins her father’s release. But however much these paintings purport to focus on her compassion, they are exploiting the titillating taboo of incest and breastfeeding.

The advent of the internet created a diversified pornography industry, and wonders such as Battle of the Ultra Milkmaids emerged, but frankly, when people still aren’t allowed to breastfeed their child in McDonald’s, it’s unlikely adult breastfeeding is going to go mainstream any time soon.