Darillyn writes:

>   One reason for this is that the more medical intervention is used, and 
> the more emphasis is placed on being able to express milk from the 
> breast,  the greater the chance that the adoptive mother will keep 
> pumping and not establish a long-term breastfeeding relationship.  IMO, 
> the relationship is even more important for the adopted baby than for the 
> baby who remains with the same mother he knows from before birth.  Also, 
> although some of the more medical methods may offer greater chances for 
> more milk being produced at any one given time, the baby who develops a 
> normal breastfeeding relationship with his adoptive mom, using 
> supplementation at the breast, as needed, will generally nurse 
> considerably longer and benefit more from breastmilk, overall, even if 
> his mother may not ever be able to produce the same amount in one day as 
> someone who has taken drugs and hormones and spends a great deal of time 
> pumping.

I agree wholeheartedly with Darillyn that with external inducing there is 
the temptation of  too much focus on "the milk."  What most of my clients 
want is breastfeeding, not necessarily breastmilk feeding.  I initiate 
several conversations about what feeding a baby at the breast can do for an 
adoptive mother and an adopted baby.  With feeding at the breast and lots 
of skin to skin time baby and mother lay down a long-term relationship, one 
that neither one is eager to see diminished. If we talk about herbs or 
drugs to increase milk I caution them about not letting the amount of milk 
get in the way.

However, I have had a few who continued pumping and didn't give baby a 
chance to learn to feed at the breast.

One client who adopted an "older" baby put her to the breast and she nursed 
immediately.  Mom concluded that the baby had had so many different bottle 
nipples hers was just another one.

I may have written about one  tragic case in which mother used the BCP 
method and had a full milk supply and loads of milk in her freezer when her 
private adoption was realized.  Baby was feeding very well and I was called 
to just tweak the latch a bit.  Mother had worked so hard to get a good 
milk supply but when the Ped declared that milk that produced without a 
pregnancy was inadequate to nourish a baby, mother would not even give the 
prescribed formula with the LactAid at the breast out of her and Dad's fear 
of robbing their baby of the complete nutrition.  This mother and baby were 
victim of a crime.  She threw out all of her frozen milk and could not hear 
any other information.

I have had clients who were fully convinced that they wanted to feed their 
adopted baby at their breasts and didn't want to know how much milk they 
were producing.  They didn't have time for such measurements as they were 
too busy falling in love with their breastfed baby. One woman said that a 
mother feeding her baby at her breast with a supplementer is more *like* 
any other breastfeeding mother than *different."  I like that.

You know how a baby who is eating solids begins to offer her food to 
others?  One day while my granddaughter, Renata, was feeding with the 
LactAid she stopped and put the tube to her mother's mouth to share. :)

I have a client now who is adopting her second baby.  She and her husband 
were both adopted and she tells people that her babies' being adopted is 
genetic.


>I don't think the website at www.fourfriends.com/abrw has been provided 
>yet.  One of the best things about this site is that there are ladies 
>there who have adopted under a wide variety of circumstances, tried a wide 
>variety of methods, and had a wide variety of results.

This website is priceless.  It is encouraging to any mother who desires to 
feed her adopted baby at her breast.  Thank you Darillyn for offering it to 
mothers.

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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