[BabyLove-3]

Hi, Everyone.

My name is Kate and I am new to the Adoption forum. I originally joined because we have just started the process of adopting from Ethiopia and wanted info and connections to that community, but I am VERY excited to see the adoptive breastfeeding threads as well. I will try to keep this short, but I apologize if it does get long.

I did attempt ABF with my son True (currently 19 m). At the time he was born we were not homestudied or signed with an agency, and were thinking we would start the adoption process sometime the following year. True is AA and was born with a neurological injury that made him a very difficult baby to place even though he did excellent the first few days of life (and continued to do well). My DH and I found out about this little guy from some friends and 2 weeks later we were able to bring him home as our son. I had done a little research on ABF before all of this and was really keen on trying it for our adoted children (it honestly brought huge amounts of healing to myself to know that even though I would probably never experience pregnancy my body could still nurture our children to some extent). Adopting a child who was special needs made this desire even greater.

Well, in the mad whorl of paper work I started all the herbs I found to help with lactation and pumped on a very intense schedule. I also lined up a friend who was willing to stock my freezer with breastmilk for the next few months. The pumping produced a few drops of milk which made me very happy, but having breast milk to supplement with took a huge amount of pressure off of me to try and get a large supply of milk.

I was able to ABF True for the first 2.5 months with a Lact-Aid supplementer, and I am so thankful for the bonding relationship we quickly established from this. However, he has a very weak suck and as his milk needs increased it was too fatiguing for both of us to continue. I was sad to give it up (and realize now with proper support we may have been able to go longer), but was very thankful to be able to give him breastmilk for a while longer.

With this next adoption, I am going to be starting the protocol shortly. I also am excited to see that many of you have had successful nursing relationships started with an older infant. Thanks for taking the time to read my story. I am looking forward to getting to know you in the future.

Kate