Hello.  My name is Lisa Doughty and I am in my second semester of
nursing at Ivy Tech in Indianapolis, Indiana.  We were assigned to sign
up for your list serve.  I am totally blown away by all the things I
didn't know about breastfeeding.  There is something that comes through
almost everyday that is enlightening me that hopefully I will be able to
pass on to my patients or at least be able to put them in contact with a
lactation consultant to address.  What a wonderful resource!
     One thing that absolutely floored me is that women can lactate for
their adoptive children.  Women have amazing bodies.  I was researching
and found that this has been happening since the beginning of man.  It
makes sense- tribes or groups taking care of each other's young because
of different reasons - perhaps the death or illness of a mother.
     These mothers have such a gift to give to these children.  I
especially and thinking about the ones who come into this world with
such a rough start.  How blessed they are to able to go to a family
where the mother can offer such nurturing and bonding.
     I went to a couple of site, including the ILCA and mainly saw
testimonials.  I could not find any statistics.  I was curious how many
people you might see, as consultants, who are women trying or
breastfeeding their adoptive children.  I also saw that there was really
not a lot of need for medical intervention with medication, but that it
was sometime necessary.  What type of success rates are you seeing?  I
know women who have had their own children and who become frustrated
when first attempting to breastfeed.  I was curious if psychologically
it made it more difficult to continue without the biological connection
- that maybe they would give up sooner or easier if they weren't
successful right away.  Lastly, I was curious about the age of the
women.  I am a more "mature" woman and my husband and I have discussed
adoption in the past.  I would imagine that I do have patience on my
side, but are there differences in success rates due to age?
     Thank you so much for your input.  I am really enjoying your
list-serve and I look forward to hearing some more great information
that I can use in my future.
Lisa Doughty
Ivy Tech Student Nurse
Resources:
The Adoptive Breastfeeding Resource Website http://fourfriends.com/abrw/
La Leche League Website http://www.llli.org/NB/NBadoptive.html

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