[Melissa30]

My husband and I are starting the adoption process. We have chosen our agency, it's just a matter of filling out the application and putting the down payment.

I have been reading up on women who have been able to breast feed their adopted infants by using supplements. I know that there is a possibility that women will not produce any milk or very little milk while using supplements.

I would like to know if anyone here has breast fed their adopted infant, what supplements were taken and how long before the birth did you start taking them? How much milk did you produce? Do you know if the nutritional value of the milk is less because of the supplements?

Any help on this subject would be greatly appreciated. Since i cannot get pregnant or give birth, I would at lease try to take a stab at breast feeding... Partly for bonding and partly because of the nutritional value of breast milk.

Melissa

[vernellinnj]

There is a forum on this site dedicated solely to this topic.. You'll get a lot of information there. Congratulations on starting the adoption process!

[usisarah]

http://forums.adoption.com/breastfeeding-adopted-child/

[rd200]

I breastfed my DS for about 6 months. I started a little late in the game. Only about 6 weeks before he was born. I took the Birth control for 30 days, then started to pump. I got a few drops after about a week, then after he came home i was nursing with the supplementer (lact-aid) and at about the height of my breastfeeding career, i had 6ounces. Not a huge amount, some women on here have gotten alot more than that, a few with full-supplies. It really really depends of what herbs you take, if you take Domperidone, if you do the whole protocol, (ie: Birth control for 6-9 months w/Dom, then start pumping and taking Blessed thistle and fenugreek and Dom,) When you do the accelerated protocol (which is about what i did,) you cant expect a huge supply. But, every person is different.
I was happy that we got the experience, my DS LOVED to nurse, he would fall asleep every time we nursed, and you could just tell he liked it. The lact-aid took some time to get used to, but i got the hang of it after a while. It did get kinda hectic sometimes, because i tried nursing and pumping in between to build my supply but I should've just stuck to nursing on demand with the supplementer. Its not exactly cheap either if you do the whole protocol with the Dom, and herbs, but i thought it was worth the 6 oz i got. I would do it over in a heartbeat.
Studies have shown that milk produced by a woman whom was pregnant and had a child and milk produced by a woman whom induced lactation was virtually the exact same 10 days post-partum.
If you have any specific questions, please feel free to PM me if you'd like. Also reading the posts on the breastfeeding forum here has really really helped me when i first started out.
Congrats on starting the process. -Rach