Karleen writes:

<The new open access International Breastfeeding Journal is up and running
and I'm very pleased that a review paper of mine that I wrote to answer the
question "Why on earth would you breastfeed an adopted child?" is included.
http://www.internationalbreastfeedingjournal.com I've wanted to write this
article for an long time and  I hope it helps adoption and lactation
professionals to develop a greater understanding
of adoptive breastfeeding.>

Karleen, I am deeply impressed and moved by your article, and I recommend it
to anyone who wants a more in-depth understanding of the emotiional
importance of breastfeeding in general, as well as particularly in adoptive
situations. Your references are stellar in supporting your conclusions.

I plan to supply a copy to each of my local adoption agencies to advance
their understanding of how breastfeeding may fit into adoption locally.

I am familiar with the general tone of your article because of my experience
35 years ago, after being  biological parents 5 times, we adopted our sixth
child via closed adoption at the age of one month. I assumed that what I
knew about the physiology of breastfeeding would make it a simple task to
begin breastfeeding our very young baby because I was still nursing my 2 1/2
year old. Not so.

My experiences as an adoptive mother were very humbling, and remain so to
this day. As a maternal child health professional, at that time, I belonged
to our local adoption coalition, purportedly for the sake of improving
adoption awareness both in the general public, in people who were members of
an adoption triad, and in the legislature in the importance of establishing
open adoption in our state.

I can see now that the group also served as an emotiional support group for
me. Our educational projects and excellent speakers and their books provided
many then-new theories about the adoption triad that helped me to understand
what was going on (and continues to this day to go on) in our own lives, and
in the lives of so many other human beings.

I encourage all Lactnetters to read and make Karleen's article widely
available. I believe it has tremendous significance in our troubled world by
offering a deeper understanding of the all-important process of emotional
attachment.

I even find that a simple statement on the growth of the practice
of adoptive nursiing can "prop up" the faltering confidence of a biological
mother in a non-breastfeeding friendly culture when she is having trouble
with establishing a supply and a breastfeeding relationship with her baby. I
try to let them know simply that the breasts of many adoptive mothers the
world over are demonstrating how dynamic the human female breast really is
in nurturing. This often inspires confidence in their own ability to
breastfeed, whether it be exclusively or partially.

Jean
****************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, OH USA

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