Breastfeeding an adopted baby??????

[mattandcindy]

Hi.
I have friend who is adopting a newborn. She (and I) had heard that you can take hormones to breastfeed an adopted newborn. She went to her ob/gyn to find out and her doctor basically laughed in her face and said not to believe everything she read on the internet.
Has anyone had any experience with this? Or know anyone who has?
Thanks for the help!

[matthewsmama]

When I had my son I had a peoblem breastfeeding and I went to a lactation consultant.  she said she has worked with tons of moms who have adopted adn yes they can either breastfeed or there is a small hose that attaches from a bottle to your nipple and when the baby sucks gets milk and produces hormones in the mom to get milk.  I would say call the local hospital and ask fr a lactation consultant.  Christie

[RebeccaH]

Hi, I've trained as a LLL peer consellor and you can definately do it. You don't even need the hose thing (although it's easier). The general gist is that you need to bottle feed the baby but also let baby latch on as much as possible, eventually the milk will come through. This happens even if the woman has never been pregnant. A local breast feeding supporter should be able to give more advice and I'm sure will be happy to come over to help your friend with positioning etc. I'd love to know what happens, please let us know.

[NKmommy]

That's strange that the doctor said that!  I know for sure that it can be done - though my only source is from watching "The Adoption Story."   :lol:

Best wishes to your friend!

[branwen]

It can totally be done! My Aunt did it with her son.  You don't need the hormones either...you just need to put the baby at the breast and eventually your body kicks on.  You have to be dedicated though...probably wouldn't happen over night.  That OB is awful, where do they think nurse maids came from?? :roll:

[annamum]

:evil:  :evil:  :evil: Arghh, what a doctor?

It certainly can be done. What helps is putting baby at the breast a lot, she can also use the tube, that way baby is getting some food while sucking on her nipple and stimulating it to start produce milk. Having a good hospital grade electrical pump and using it a lot is also helpful. Some women are able to start producing enough milk to feed an adopted baby but some produce just enough to give him some antibodies and have this bonding experience. I applaud your friend for trying to do it, it is definitely not the easiest route. I think she should not listen to what her OB is saying, she has obviously no clue, what a shame!

Advise her to find a lc and the one who believes that this can be done. There are thousands of women out there who have done it.

Way to go!

[TayTay'smummy]

There are things that you can do before the baby arrives to prepare you breasts for milk. I'm a maternity nurse and lactation consultant and I have a few hints. Number#1: Rent a double electric pump from your local pharmacy, cost is around 100.00$ and pump every two hours for fifteen minutes. Number #2: Get a prescription for Domperidone 120 mg everyday, it is a motility agent, basically for people have stomach motility problems, but they have found that it can drastically increase prolactin levels and it certainly worked for me when I had breast milk supply issues. Some doctors readily prescribe for these purposes while others haven't even heard it. If you have trouble getting a prescription, you can e-mail Dr. Jack Newman, a breastfeeding guru online and he can e-mail you a prescription online, he responds really quickly. Number #3: There are some natural herbs that you can try to increase milk supply once milk comes in: Blessed Thistle and Fenugreek, found at any herbal store for cheap. They really work. Number #4: Use visual imagery while you are pumping to help the hormones. If you do these things chances you are you may be able to have a milk supply for when baby arrives and from there just put baby to breast as often as possible to increase supply. Good luck, I hope it works!

[mattandcindy]

Thanks so much Julie for the tips. I am emailing this to my friend right now!

[Nik99]

Hi there, here's some info from kellymom that might be useful.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/adopt/index.html

[mattandcindy]

Thank you everyone for the info.
Unfortunately the adoption fell through.
The teenage kids who were going to give their newborn up for adoption to my friends, changed their minds less than 2 weeks before the girl was due to give birth.
My friends are completely heartbroken.

[NKmommy]

OMG, Cindy!  How terrible for them!  I can't even imagine the anticipation of having my new baby come home soon, and then getting that news.  Best of luck to them as they search for their new baby...

[mattandcindy]

They are now matched with another birthmom. There shouldn't be any problems with this one as the birthmom has given 3 other babies up for adoption. She told my friend she doesn't want anything to do with the baby once it is born!
The baby is due March 8th so it should be plenty of time for her to get set up with trying to bf!

[alison reed]

Hi cindy

Just wanted to let you know that I have a very close friend who has just adapted new born twins which she found out about 3 months ago in the UK were we live and for these past 3 months she has been taking herbal remedies which were thistle and fenugreek and for the past month has been using an electic pump and imaging that the suction from the pump waqs the twins feeding. She is in to second week now with the twins and she is so far sucessfully breastfeeding without using formula as a top up. The twins have already put on 2lb each and are on a 2 hourly feed as they had a low borth weight but even though they were small were allowed home when they were 10 days old. I have just seen them for the 8th time since they have been born and I have told my friend that for the next 5 days I am on the other end of the phone so that she can get us to having the twins at home on her own with her partner as they have had a very hard time as she has found breastfeeding very hard as the hospital did not show her how to do it so I have ended up helping her which is fine as I have been able to show her all the positions she can use will breastfeeding my daughter.

Let your friend know about his sucess story with breastfeeding an adapted baby. It can be done but it was a hard 3 months for her and the last month was the worse. Also get your friend to find out if she can be in the room for the birth so that the baby can go to the breast straight away which also helps make breastfeeding successfull.

Keep us informed and good luck to your friend with the hopeful up-coming adoption.