[lemonchutney]

For adoptive mothers to breastfeed, they need to take drugs such as domperidone or reglan. These drugs mimic the hormones that occur in postnatal women, and they also often cause depression.

Also, to get the milk production going, adoptive moms must pump full time (around the clock every two to three hours). This is exhausting mentally and physically and is MUCH different than pumping a couple times a day while at work. There is really no comparison.

My son was born 6 weeks early, and due to numerous complications I won't go into, was not able to breastfeed. I was determined to get him my milk, though, so I pumped full-time for 6.5 months, and when my milk production started to wane because of utter exhaustion, I took domperidone to increase supply. This caused me to become depressed. If I had been an adoptive mother, I would have needed to take much more of that depression-causing drug. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone!

The cult of breastfeeding often causes more harm than good. If you can breastfeed easily and joyfully, great. But don't beat yourself up if you can't. Today's formulas are not unhealthy. To hear some people go on, you'd think they were poison. This is not true. After I gave up the pumping, I formula fed until my son was a year old. Now he's going on two, and he's absolutely fine. Just think of all the mothers who take their kids to McDondald's every day. If you have to formula feed, make up for it by giving your child access to a healthy diet the remaining 17+ years of his childhood....!