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My husband and I are only just beginning to pursue adoption, but I already know that I will want to BF our adoptive child. I'm so happy to come across this board and all the great information and stories posted here - lots of good leads for me to explore! I have two bio children - one I EPed for and one I EBFed, so I am hopeful that I would have success pumping and nursing an adoptive child. This board has reinforced my hopes. Best wishes to all of you hoping to BF your children!
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It's nice to "meet" you! I'm a grandma, now, but I nursed my six adopted kids, born between 1983 and 1995. You have a big advantage in the fact that you know how to breastfeed! It took me until my third child to really figure it out, by trial and error. There was very little information available and very few women who had done it. Of the few I did get to talk to, every one had previously breastfed bio babies. I didn't know what they were talking about much of the time, but was too embarrassed to admit it. We did nurse part time, mostly for comfort. I didn't think I was producing any milk, because nothing came out when I tried to use the totally worthless Kaneson cylinder pump I had. I didn't know there was such a thing as hand expression. Judging by the changes I saw in my breasts, I realize, after the fact, that I was producing something. It's a natural reaction to lactate if you spend a significant amount of time suckling a baby. You couldn't hold it back if you tried!
That often isn't true of pumping, if that is all you are doing, especially for women who have never been pregnant. Where the vast majority of moms who do nothing more than nurse a baby on demand with a Lact-Aid produce a significant amount of milk very few are able to get more than drops from pumping alone. There are some who are able to get some milk going, but all the ones I've known and known of who did had either breastfed a bio baby and done quite a bit of pumping, too, or else had hyperprolactinemia. Since you've had a lot of practice pumping, you might have much better results than most, if you choose not to take domperidone.
Domperidone changes the results of pumping alone, greatly. Most moms who take dom and pump in advance are able to get at least a few ounces a day going before they get their babies. Then, they can use what they have saved up, in the Lact-Aid. It is actually a side-effect of that drug, which causes an increase in prolactin levels. Unfortunately, the FDA has refused to OK it for use here in the USA. There are some compounding pharmacies that will make it up, specially, but I've heard that it doesn't tend to work as well as dom that comes from other countries, and is also much more expensive. It has been used in many parts of the world, for a quarter century or so, with great results at increasing milk production. A few moms have trouble with side-effects, but that majority have no trouble with it, and many who do can avoid them by starting on a small dose and increasing the amount gradually. It is optional, though. I had no way to get it back when I was nursing my kids. I've never given birth to a baby. I also never had more than a few days notice that I was getting a baby. Basically, what I did was start out "cold", just nursing on demand, using the Lact-Aid to provide the formula the babies needed. It only took a few days to produce drops and I produced up to 16 ounces a day (but probably an average of 10 or 12 ounces a day). Of course, I would have loved to have a "full" milk supply. But, the benefits were incredible! I did get to stop using the Lact-Aid at some point, though, after the babies were taking solids and other liquids. I love the Lact-Aid. Without it, I would not have been able to do nearly as much as I did. It was nice to get to the point of not having to worry about it any more, though. It was really nice for my toddlers to be able to climb into my lap and help themselves, without me having to get up and get a Lact-Aid out of the fridge. My last four babies self-weaned, at an average of 2 years.
I hope this doesn't sound too rambling! I've been trying to write it in between doing things with my little grandkids. They're the most beautiful children in the world, but they are a bit distracting! Anyway, I think, in your situation, what I would do is get some domperidone and just start taking it and doing some pumping when you have some idea when you will get a baby. It's impossible to predict how well you will respond to it, but I think you will have an easier time than average. I would probably get a Lact-Aid kit, too. You may not need it, but I think it is better to be over prepared than under prepared. If the individually sealed components are still sealed, you can send the kit back for a refund, if you don't need it.
Do you have any idea of when you can expect a baby and what the age or health of the baby might be? Older babies tend to take a while to teach to nurse, but it can be done. My third child and first daughter was a very tough case. She arrived at six and a half months, weighing nine pounds, with serious health and emotional problems,being fed through a gastrostomy tube, and with significant developmental delays. It took me five months to figure out how to get her to want to nurse, but we made it! The more the baby has working against her/him, the more they have to gain from breastfeeding. That baby is a beautiful, very talented, 22 year old woman now! Of course, breastfeeding wasn't the only thing that helped overcome the problems that threatened to prevent her from having a full life, but it was definitely an important part of it!
I look forward to getting to know you better!
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Noelani2, I've read a lot of your replies on this board, and I greatly appreciate all the information! My oldest was in the NICU for months and never learned to latch (a combination of her having a lot of feeding issues and me having flat nipples), so I had to EP, but I had great success without anything but perseverance and a hospital grade pump. I had a supply of over 40 oz/day and was able to pump for just a few months, freeze tons of milk, and bottle feed my daughter for a while (my only regret, not pumping a little longer to have had enough stored to avoid finishing her first year with formula). My second was full term and with the help of a shield, learned to latch within a few weeks and we had a very successful EBF relationship until she self weaned. I have never had success with hand expression, but I own a Medela hospital grade pump and I hope that I can use it to start pumping shortly before we would expect a child home, then switch to nursing as soon as possible. I'm hesitant to use drugs; I've had problems with my BP from pregnancies, so I wouldn't want to use the pill to induce lactation, and I tried fenugreek and Mother's Milk Tea in the past but didn't feel it made any difference (and ugh I hated that maple syrup smell! lol). I do hope that if I can at least get a small amount started pumping, I could have luck once I started the baby nursing. But all this is a tad premature - we only just started our process of adoption, so a baby is likely years away. Still, I didn't even know about many of the ways people used to induce lactation aside from pumping, so all this information is helpful and I am most pleased just to find a community of like-minded adoptive moms who are trying to nurse. Some people I have mentioned it to think I'm crazy or just don't understand how it's feasible, and it's nice to be reassured that others have done it successfully and there is a community of people who believe in it ; )
On a side note for all those trying to nurse, even with my bio child who nursed exclusively, it was a very steep learning curve for her and for me! It's hard to stay motivated when you're exhausted (and therefore more easily frustrated) and up at odd hours with a fussy baby, but when it does click, it is worth all the effort. (A book I loved when I was nursing was The Nursing Mother's Companion, which has a section about using a Lact-Aid and nursing adopted children.) Best wishes to everyone!
I'm glad you've found helpful information here! I also appreciate your advice, about it being hard to stay motivated sometimes, when you're exhausted and it would be a lot easier to grab a bottle. That was part of what held me back from getting farther with my first two babies. I'd get discouraged and exhausted, and not know what to do and start to complain. My husband would get impatient and tell me that if I didn't want to do it I shouldn't do it. Although I realized, a couple years later, that I had been producing at least a little milk, I didn't think I was, because the only way I knew how to test was with the lousy cylinder pump I had, Of course, I always regretted that I had not tried harder, especially when they were sick. So, when we were hoping to adopt a third, I explained to my husband that I needed him to remind me of how important it was. We got beyond the tough spots, it got much easier, and he nursed until he self-weaned.