For the last 3 weeks or so I've been in the process of relactating for my
newly adopted daughter. It has been a very interesting process and I have
learnt once again that there is nothing like personal experience to give you
a greater understanding of what it is really like to attempt something like
this. I have always maintained that confidence is vital in  this sort of
situation but I was suprised at myself at how suprised I was when it
actually worked as I had been telling people that it does :-) You really do
need to believe that it will work to be able to persist. At the moment I am
pretty happy with my success and consider that I now have a full milk supply
(considering the age of my daughter- the whole question of what is defined
as a full milk supply is something that is ignored in the literature) in
expressing 150 mL yesterday and still increasing. I do have some ideas that
I hope some of you might be able to give me your thoughts on.

The way that I relactated was through the use of 90 mg/day domperidone and
pumping 6x per day for 20-30 mins. Because I was never very successful at
pumping with my bio son with conventional pumps I thought that it was worth
trying the Whittlestone. Unfortunately although it is much gentler than
conventional pumps it was no more successful in extracting milk for me,
however, I do think that it has been useful and I will explain why. I have
found that the best way for me to extract milk is via hand expression but
one cannot hand express (well I couldn;t anyway) for 30 minutes 6x per day.
So what I think may have happened with me is that the combination of
Domperidone and the pumping elevated my prolactin levels which started the
redevelopmment of the structures within the breast necessary for milk
production (ie as happens through the influence of progesterone and
oestrogen during pregnancy). The hand expression and removal of milk would
then get the whole supply/demand cycle happening. The combination of both of
these has resulted in the increase in milk production. Is this a reasonable
hypothesis or am I really showing my ignorance here? I'd appreciate some
discussion.

One observation that I have, that I have not read anywhere else is that the
first sign I had that something was going on was that my breasts started to
feel warm- even before I was producing anything. Might help some other mums
that are anxiously looking for drops!

Karleen Gribble
Australia

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