Breastfeeding Lakshmi...my favorite photo because (1) I can share it : ) and (2) Ravi is watching on and you can see the most precious look in his face. I miss those days, and would give anything to have them back. It was a very special time.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Adoptive Breastfeeding...a comment
Anonymous said...
jyotsna i just wanted to know how u were able to breastfeed your babies without getting pregnant?just a bit curious for from ur blog saw that all your kids r adopted so how come u r able to produce milk to breastfeed them ?sorry if u r hurt by my query & its okay if u dont want to answer my query!but its just plain curiosity.
4:18 AM
**And here is the answer.......
Dear Anon:
Pregnancy isn't required to breastfeed. Breastfeeding is a "supply and demand" situation.
If baby is allowed to suck, milk will come. Please visit the WHO (world health organization) for more information about breastfeeding during emergencies.
There is also information all over the internet about adoptive breastfeeding. It is now very common for adoptive moms to attempt to breastfeed. Most of them can succeed. I would not say it was the easiest thing I did, but I think it was the sweetest thing I did for my kids. I was able to do it, and they recieved the benefits of breastfeeding.
Also, raising my family through adoption, I didn't want to miss out on breastfeeding which is something I would have been able to do if I had given birth to the babies that I concieved.
I used to dream of sitting in a rocking chair nursing my babies. When I couldn't bring a baby to term, I worried that I would never experience breastfeeding.
In 1996, I started scouring the internet for information about adoptive breastfeeding. There wasn't very much, if only one website. LLL wasn't fully supportive of adoptive breastfeeding at the time, so I turned to other adoptive mothers, or soon to be adoptive mothers. We all decided to experiment with breast pumps to see if we could get milk to come out. Several of us were successful in getting drops of milk or colostrum. We then planned to pump every time a baby would be breastfeeding, which of course was every 2 - 4 hours.
We also found out that there are herbs that are called galactogens that particularly help bring in milk, affect milk quality, and milk quanity. I began experimenting with those herbs.
I carried a hand pump to India with me, and continued to pump all the way to India, not wanting to lose those precious drops of milk. When I got my first child, he was being breastfed currently by one of the ayahs, and he came straight to my breast. At the time I didn't know that I could suppliment at the breast, so I either breastfed what I had, or I gave a bottle.
With my second child, she was only 2 1/2 months old when I got her. Breastfeeding was hard because she had a high palette, but in time even she was breastfeeding. By then I had learned about Lact-Aid International . I didn't pump this time, but instead waited until my daughter was breastfeeding, and used the Lact-Aid to feed her at my breast. In time, I had milk. Eventually, when she was about 9 months old, I was at my highest level of milk production. I was still having to feed her 2 or 3 supplimental feeds with the Lact Aid.
So when a baby nurses, a message is sent to the pituitary gland, which sends a message for breastfeeding hormones to start working. If baby does this every 2 - 4 hours every day, and mom nurses baby at night too, then eventually most adoptive moms will make breast milk.
I didn't make all of the breastmilk, so I used a device called Lact-Aid. There is a photo of an adoptive mother breastfeeding her baby with the lact-aid device on the front page of the website.
This is a fairly easy to use device, and it simply hangs around the adoptive mothers neck, with a bag of formula, and a tube going from the bag then adoptive mom lays the tube next to her nipple, then latches on baby. Most babies will get used to the tube on the nipple within a few feedings.
It was really a miracle for me, and my kids. Since I follow attachment parenting ideals, I really wanted to have that close relationship that breastfeeding provides, and also give my babies the benefits of breastmilk, especially immunities.
I recommend it to anyone who is adopting.
Thanks for asking!
Jyotsna
jyotsna i just wanted to know how u were able to breastfeed your babies without getting pregnant?just a bit curious for from ur blog saw that all your kids r adopted so how come u r able to produce milk to breastfeed them ?sorry if u r hurt by my query & its okay if u dont want to answer my query!but its just plain curiosity.
4:18 AM
**And here is the answer.......
Dear Anon:
Pregnancy isn't required to breastfeed. Breastfeeding is a "supply and demand" situation.
If baby is allowed to suck, milk will come. Please visit the WHO (world health organization) for more information about breastfeeding during emergencies.
There is also information all over the internet about adoptive breastfeeding. It is now very common for adoptive moms to attempt to breastfeed. Most of them can succeed. I would not say it was the easiest thing I did, but I think it was the sweetest thing I did for my kids. I was able to do it, and they recieved the benefits of breastfeeding.
Also, raising my family through adoption, I didn't want to miss out on breastfeeding which is something I would have been able to do if I had given birth to the babies that I concieved.
I used to dream of sitting in a rocking chair nursing my babies. When I couldn't bring a baby to term, I worried that I would never experience breastfeeding.
In 1996, I started scouring the internet for information about adoptive breastfeeding. There wasn't very much, if only one website. LLL wasn't fully supportive of adoptive breastfeeding at the time, so I turned to other adoptive mothers, or soon to be adoptive mothers. We all decided to experiment with breast pumps to see if we could get milk to come out. Several of us were successful in getting drops of milk or colostrum. We then planned to pump every time a baby would be breastfeeding, which of course was every 2 - 4 hours.
We also found out that there are herbs that are called galactogens that particularly help bring in milk, affect milk quality, and milk quanity. I began experimenting with those herbs.
I carried a hand pump to India with me, and continued to pump all the way to India, not wanting to lose those precious drops of milk. When I got my first child, he was being breastfed currently by one of the ayahs, and he came straight to my breast. At the time I didn't know that I could suppliment at the breast, so I either breastfed what I had, or I gave a bottle.
With my second child, she was only 2 1/2 months old when I got her. Breastfeeding was hard because she had a high palette, but in time even she was breastfeeding. By then I had learned about Lact-Aid International . I didn't pump this time, but instead waited until my daughter was breastfeeding, and used the Lact-Aid to feed her at my breast. In time, I had milk. Eventually, when she was about 9 months old, I was at my highest level of milk production. I was still having to feed her 2 or 3 supplimental feeds with the Lact Aid.
So when a baby nurses, a message is sent to the pituitary gland, which sends a message for breastfeeding hormones to start working. If baby does this every 2 - 4 hours every day, and mom nurses baby at night too, then eventually most adoptive moms will make breast milk.
I didn't make all of the breastmilk, so I used a device called Lact-Aid. There is a photo of an adoptive mother breastfeeding her baby with the lact-aid device on the front page of the website.
This is a fairly easy to use device, and it simply hangs around the adoptive mothers neck, with a bag of formula, and a tube going from the bag then adoptive mom lays the tube next to her nipple, then latches on baby. Most babies will get used to the tube on the nipple within a few feedings.
It was really a miracle for me, and my kids. Since I follow attachment parenting ideals, I really wanted to have that close relationship that breastfeeding provides, and also give my babies the benefits of breastmilk, especially immunities.
I recommend it to anyone who is adopting.
Thanks for asking!
Jyotsna
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)