A friend wrote to me with some important questions and gave me permission to
post his questions to the great minds of lactnet. You can respond to the
list or email me privately if you prefer at [log in to unmask] Thanks.
Gail S. Hertz, MD, IBCLC
[log in to unmask]

My friend writes:

o My wife had miscarried in Oct 2000
o She was dx with breast ca in January 2001; had chemo/mast/radiation
(doing fine now)
o We began the adoption process, and, to our incredible luck, have found
a birth mother within just a couple of months. Of course, this whole
thing could fall apart at any point until the surrender is signed 72
hours post-birth, but so far, so good...

Here's my questions for you:

o I'm assuming banked human milk is not a good idea, either because of
disease concerns or because of sheer lack of availability for
(presumably) normal kids.

o I'm basically already assuming that inducing lactation in my wife is
not a good idea, given her recent hx of breast ca.  Tamoxifen might
potentially make it difficult anyhow, and given the chronological
juxtaposition of her spontaneous ab and the cancer, I'm a little wary of
doing anything to those nice milk duct cells... :-/ :-)

o Birth mom (19 year old) actually said something about nursing and
pumping milk to drop off for us.  (She was just musing based on what WIC
had said to her about how breastfeeding was important -- of course, I
don't think they knew she was giving the baby up.)  My concerns:
o Logistically, it could just be a major pain.  (bmom lives 30
miles south of us)
o Emotionally, it could just open up a can of worms and
(potentially) contribute to
   her pulling out of this at the last minute.

Any thoughts on this?  I find it ironic that our only choice may be to
use formula, given how much I advocate breastfeeding.  :-/

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