When newborn baby Sequoia cries in the middle of the night, she has more than one mom that can breastfeed her.
After a long struggle with infertility and endometriosis, new mothers Heidi and her wife Mary Ellen were finally able to conceive and have a healthy baby.
Although MaryEllen did not carry the pregnancy, she was able to induce lactation which is becoming more and more common in the adoption world.
Heidi shared the process with BabyCenter.com:
“There is a protocol called the Newman-Goldfarb protocol that outlines how to induce lactation, and she followed it pretty closely. You start by taking birth control pills to simulate being pregnant along with a medication called Domperidone that induces lactation. The general rule of thumb is to stay on those medications as long as possible to let them build up and show your system what to do.
MaryEllen started about 4 months before Sequoia was born. About 6-8 weeks before the baby is due to arrive you stop the birth control pills and begin pumping. This drop in hormones is a pretend signal to your body that you gave birth, and it helps amp up your milk production. At this point you begin pumping. The recommendation is every 3 hours, but for MaryEllen this wasn’t feasible due to her schedule with her work, school, and internship. She aimed for about 5-6 sessions of pumping a day.
At first when you start pumping it can take a long time to get more than drops, and it slowly builds up. It looks a lot different than a woman who just gave birth, as there is no ‘milk coming in’ or anything similar to that. Instead the pump is telling your body during each session to produce more milk. You continue on the Domperidone for the duration of your nursing journey, although some mothers are able to taper off a little bit. Some mothers also use herbs to help things along, and MaryEllen is currently taking Motherlove’s ‘More Milk Special Blend’ pills, along with Moringa. MaryEllen started saving her milk after a week of pumping, and by the time Sequoia was born she had 65oz in the freezer.“
Both moms admit they aren’t on much of a schedule, and whoever is holding the baby at the time she needs to eat will feed her. The other mom will then pump to keep her supply up. Both ended up getting mastitis, but they also share that they get to sleep longer at night because of the extra feeding support.
MaryEllen said, “It is well worth the effort, time, and hard work to be able to have this shared relationship and added bonding. It is by no means an easy task, and sometimes it is REALLY hard and exhausting, but the reward after the baby born is truly priceless.”
To read their full story, and to see pictures click here.
What are your thoughts? Have you, or anyone you know ever induced lactation?
