Hi Barbara,

 I can echo the suggestions of JP and Darillyn and say that breastfeeding
can
 be pretty pressurised for adoptive mothers and this may make them
 particularly sensitive to hormonal changes.

 In my own case, I wasn't admitting publically (or even to myself half the
 time) that I was going to attempt to breastfeed the child were were
adopting
 when I spent several hundred dollars on a breast pump. I brought it home
 plugged it in an tried it out. The pump was comfortable but I felt terribly
 sad and depressed and had to stop. I tried again another day, same thing. I
 believe that the feelings were related to hormonal changes during pumping
 (prolactin prob) in combination with the context of my emotional state at
 the time (pretty stressed in the final stage of waiting to be allocated a
 child). No doubt the association between pumping and the stress (aside from
 any hormonal interactions) could have also been involved. Post adoption
when
 I actually used the pump to relactate,I did not experience the same
response
 much to my relief.

 However, based solely on your description of what happened with this mum I
 suspect that it is the discontinuation of Domperidone that is the primary
 cause. Mothers have sometimes expressed that they felt different when
taking
 Domperidone and I have heard of some discontinuing it's use for depression
 (rarely). In those cases, I suspect that it may be that Domperidone is a
 dopamine agonist that is responsible (?since it doesn't cross into the
 brain) or that women are responding to the high prolactin levels that
result
 from taking it but these are really just guesses. If anyone else has more
 ideas or a better explanation I would appreciate hearing it. I am certainly
 not a pharmacologist and have always struggled with biochemistry. Anyway,
 back to the mother you describe, my guess is that the lower prolactin
levels
 on discontinuation (since prolactin is one of those warm fuzzy making
 hormones) that has caused the problem. It is always a good idea to
 discontinue any drug slowly and with galactagogues there can apparently be
a
 sharper than necessary drop in supply if mothers discontinue abruptly in
 addition to any other problem association with sudden withdrawl of a drug.
 Glad you were there to support the mum and glad she is enjoying
 breastfeeding her bub now. The stuff she was able to share with you can be
 really difficult for people to acknowledge to themselves let alone someone
 else. You must have been doing some good listening.
 Karleen Gribble
Australia


> mom I work with has twice experienced depressive symptoms when
> > she's d'cd use of Domperidone; the first time she stopped the
Domperidone
> "cold
> > turkey" and the second time per our discussion, she gradually reduced
the
> dose
> > and her depression was less severe but there nonetheless.  Has anyone
else
> > seen this with Domperidone?  I'm also wondering if it doesn't have more
to
> do
> > with the reduction of prolactin levels and not the drug itself.
> >
> > She experienced symptoms of sadness, lack of libidio, mild agitation and
> > fairly high anxiety; symptoms abated in a week or so (support, frequent
> contact
> > and active listening/discussion of her feelings of inadequacy re
> infertility and
> > inability to produce much milk also seemed to help).
> >
>

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