I see several lesbian couples each year. The issues they deal with are generally the same issues that anyone inducing lactation would experience in an adoptive situation. However there can be what I guess you could call "role" issues that complicate things from time to time. Recently, a woman phoned who was considering inducing lactation for a baby her partner (who was artificially induced) was carrying. The woman who phoned me had fertility problems and couldn't get pregnant but she wanted to be able to breastfeed the baby. However, the pregnant partner was sending strong signals that she didn't want to breastfeed at all (in fact she found it distasteful to contemplate), and would prefer bottle feeding. The non-pregnant partner was wondering if she could make enough milk to breastfeed their baby without supplementation. I gave her the protocol, and told her only time would tell. Since she had a hx of infertility, one never knows. I wondered if the pregnant partner would be willing, even for a short time, to pump and provide some early milk to help the baby's immune system. If they found that the birthing mom could tolerate pumping and bottle feeding or having the non-preg. partner deliver milk via feeding tube, this might work for a while. The preg. partner was willing to consider this, although she had concerns might be confusing to the baby to have each parent feed the baby in different ways. In such a situation, the issues are more about negotiating what feels do-able, comfortable, tolerable and improving communication about divergent goals or beliefs about parenting. One of course sees this in heterosexual couples as well. Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC Austin Lactation Associates LactNews Press www.lactnews.com *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html