Breatfeeding

Rachel, Thanks. I hope we can adopt from Guatemala. We were paper ready the week things fell apart down there. It's basically impossible to start a new adoption in Guatemala right now but there are rumors that it will get back to "normal" soon. I sure hope so. We had a little guy that we felt really good about but now there is no way to get him or any other child. I've been searching for another country but really want Guatemala. Very frustrating. Good luck with your adoption. I hope it is speedy.

this is my first time in here. Ive been reading some of everything. I think it's great! Just wanted to say that I breastfed my adopted daughter. We got her when she was 3 weeks old. We stated to nurse right away. Unfourtunetly, she had a really bad case of thrush and we had to stop...it hurt too much. When our baby turned 4 months, she started rooting, so I gave it another try...it worked! She probably got 50% of her milk from me, and that was w/o any kind of meds or pumps! It was a great experience. My family was very suportive. Some of my friends thought I was crazy. Some even thought that the milk I produced was in some way not as good as if I had given birth...lol Anyway, I would strongly recomend it

I am going to be aMommy in about 28 days!!! as I sit and 'pump"I am typeing this...... O.K. sorry I am getting way too far ahead of myself! This is also ironically the first time I have been to the forum! My name is Lindsay my DH and two 1/2 year old Gabrielle have been waiting (with our papers in) for about a year. We have had a bumpy ride with a few "fall throughs". I breast fed my bio-daughter,and really enjoyed the bonding. Since I am unable to bare any more children...I really hoped I might be able to nurse my adopted baby! I first bought a really good pump(mendela) which is very important...so is drinking ALOT of water.There is a herb out in the stores called Fenugreek that also promotes lactation. I would recomend to start off with evening and night time pumpings *even if hand expressed". Then if you are "chosen" kick it up to 15 min. every two hours until you receive your baby. Hormone pills are also available by Dr. perscription if the later dose not work.....don't give up too quickly...It is NOT fun...it is uncomforable...but it is also entirerly worth it!!! I took me Two months to build up enough to fill up a Table spoon! But once your baby arrives those mothering hormones just kick into action! We just found out today we have been selected...we meet ** next week. Baby Boy is due in 28 days ...Please keep us in your prayers ! If you have any questions please ask!!!! Good Luck every one !!! Lindsay

Congratulations! We hope everything goes well! LBL

I breastfed my second daughter for about 4 months. I did prepare (pumping and meds) for about 8 weeks but you don't have to prepare if you don't want to have to deal with the extra stress should the adoption fail. You can just put baby to the breast when you have her/him and use a lactaid. ABRW.com is a great resource website and that's what got me started. Best of luck! Elaine Mom to Nicole and Heidi, LDSFS

What meds did you use, and did you get a good result from them? I've read about a couple different ideas. Just wondering what protocol you used.

I used domperidone and bcp (diane35-which they no longer recommend). I was on the Newman-Goldfarb accelerated protocol. If we adopt again I will probably go no meds (just herbs) with pumping and the lactaid. The domperidone/bcp really wiped me out and I was tired constantly. I gained alot of weight and even though I was producing several ounces per day of milk I think that I can experience the same success minus the body changes! I just loved to have my baby close to me, and the lactaid allows that!

Hi Girls, Do you mind if i jump in here and ask a question about brestfeeding??? Congrats to all, either getting picked, approved or PG!!! I have read lots of info about BFing and I was going to try the Domperidone (sp?) and the BCP but the weight gain is scary and the being tired all the time will not work for me b/c I have a 4 year old son with lots of energy!!!! I finally worked off all the weight gain from the infertility treatment that did not work so I do not want to go through that again if I can avoid it. What is lactaid???? I did nurse my bio son and I produce enough mlk to feed the entire state of Texas!!!! We are matched with a great ** and she is due in March so I am trying to decide if I should try and nurse this baby too. I want to but I am afraid to talk with the ** about it b/c I do not want to freak her out in any way. Any suggestions??? I was concerned that if she decides to parent this child I will have to deal with the stress of trying to dry up but when my DH and I talked about it we decided that the benefits out weigh the risks. I know I would regret it if I did not try b/c I was too scared that she might keep the baby. Any advice would be helpful to me at this point. Les

Les, I don't have any advice, but congratualtions! I have heard that many people just use the herbal supplements and not RX drugs, so maybe there is not a weight gain from that? I don't know but I wish you the best! LBL:)

>>> What is lactaid????>>>> Les, A Lactaid is a feeding tube that you can attach to your nipple so baby can nurse. The tube is attached to a bag that has formula in it, but baby will also get any milk you produce yourself. The more milk you produce, the less formula the baby will eat. It's pretty amazing....and that is what I used most of our nursing experience. If you had tons of milk with your son I would think that the chances of you producing milk for an adopted child is good. Even without medication. You could use the lactaid and I'll bet the sucking child alone will stimulate you to the point where you will start producing. My mother was always the one to have tons of milk, and just two years ago, when my SISTER had a baby, my mom started producing milk again, after more than 15 years since she's nursed her own children. The body is amazing! I'm not sure what to tell you as far as talking to the prospective birthmother. How open is your relationship? If you don't want to deal w/ weight gain and tiredness I'd say just get a few lactaids, learn how to use them, and when your baby comes put her to the breast.....you might be surprised at what happens!

hello everyone, First congrats on all the upcoming babies. My daughter was an emerency placement, she was 3 days old when she came home. I met with a lactation consultatnt when she was 1.5 weeks old and started to pump and nurse then. I took FENUGREEk- it is an herbal supplement,- a side affect is uterine contractions which along with the baby suckling helps to produce milk. I was able to produce about 1/2 of what she needed. I was totoally bummed out when last month at 16 months she weaned herself. She had some bad reacitons to shots and got thrush, and chicken pox leasions in her mouth and sucking was too painful. I used the Lactaid device and was very happy with it, those are the nicest people to deal with. If anyone has additonal ?s I love to talk about my experience. Feel free to email me at trrepair@paonline.com Good luck to everyone. Michelle

bryces mommy, i am glad that you are taking in to conciteration about how you would make this new arivel to your familes firstmother feel. I am glad all of you have had great excperinces with this brest feeding thing but I would in fact just ask her how she feels about it. i would have been very upset and angry with my sons adoptive mother because I feel that is not her place. but this is my OWN persanal feelings on it. I know most adoptive mother get on the defence when we say that but i don't want to tur this post in to that kind of thing, so this is just speeking from a firstmother point of view, but just to sugest that you talk with her about it first and if she is totally not ok with it then i would respect that but maybe she wont mind .. good luck i hope all goes well....

Thanks for all the great advice from each and everyone of you. I feel better about things after reading all the wonderful posts. KZacharyC, Thank you for being so honest about your feelings. I respect getting feedback from birthmoms. It must be a very hard position for a birthmom to think about someone else nursing her child. I have discussed it with our social worker and she will mention it to the birthmom and see how she feels b/f I talk to her. I would not want to do anything disrespectful to our birthmom. I have had friends and family tell me to just do it and not mention anything to the birthmom but I feel that is not fair to her. I am hopeful that she is ok with it but we will have to wait and see. We do not have a very close relationship to her right now but we have only met with her once so far. She has agreed to allow me at the sono on the 20th and we are going to meet her for dinner sometime in Dec. She is very guarded at this point but I am hopeful that will change. Thanks again everyone, Les

I am also LDS. I am a foster parent and received and adoptive placement through DHS when she was 5 days old. At the time we were told we were only fostering her...but when she turned 7 weeks they told us we could adopt her. I looked up everything i could find on adoptive breastfeeding and began doing the newman Goldfarb protocal on asklenore.com and began using the lact-aid and sns and pumped and everything else...lots of water...oatmeal...herbs...domperidone...etc. She is now almost 8 moths old and she still loves breastfeeding. I'm still only making a very small amount but it is well worth the experience. At first I only breastfed at home because I felt awkward in public and also was pretty sure her adoptive worker would freak out at the idea (she didn't even like to hold babies). So i kept it to myself and a few church friends until her adoption was final last month. i am now starting to do it more in public and at church. Odly enough the only peson who has given me trouble with it was my grandmother who lives in another state. she thought I was being obcessive and that what I was doing was not only unhealthy for me and my baby , she felt that even though I prayed about it i was listening to what i wanted the answer to be not what God wanted. i was very hurt by her opinion and we had several heated debates....it turns out she has a problem with breastfeeding in general. I would encourage every adoptive mother to research it out and decide if it is right for them....It has been a wonderful experience for me. good websites... this one of course...then fourfriends.com, asklenore.com, ABRW.com

Hi, I'm LDS and breastfed my son for a couple months. He joined our family through adoption at age 2 days. As far as birthmom's feelings, I'd say do what you feel prompted to. I felt okay mentioning it to her before the birth, and she was impressed and said she knew breastmilk was best and that she was happy he'd be getting some. I can certainly understand how it may be a sensitive idea to some, though, which is why I think each situation needs to be considered individually. Our family was supportive. They were curious about how it is possible, but I have a very breastfeeing-friendly family, so they all pretty much thought it was cool. Even ward members who I shared it with seemed to think it was neat. It wasn't something I talked about a lot, but if it came up, I'd mention it, depending on how I felt it would be received. A good resource that has been mentioned is the fourfriends site: [url]www.fourfriends.com/abrw/[/url] They have the most information I've seen on the subject. As others have mentioned, it is possible to breastfeed even if you don't go through months of preparation with the aid of a Lact-Aid ([url]www.lact-aid.com[/url]). Some people respond better than others to the protocol, so my biggest advice is to focus on the relationship of breastfeeding, not production. That was my mistake -- I stressed too much about not being able to make much milk. Good luck!