Just because you have not given birth to your baby does not mean that you will not be able to try to breastfeed your adopted baby. In fact, it is estimated that more than half of women who adopt a baby are able to breastfeed their adopted baby.

To understand how you would go about trying to breastfeed your adopted baby, it is first important to understand how lactation occurs. While it is true that the changing levels of hormones in a woman’s body during pregnancy do in fact prepare her body for breastfeeding, it is ultimately the child’s suckling that will trigger the production of milk. The hormones estrogen and progesterone help a pregnant woman’s ducts and alveoli to become enlarged, which definitely makes it easier for a woman who has been pregnant to breastfeed; however, it is the hormone Prolactin, created by the pituitary gland when the breasts are sufficiently stimulated, that makes breast milk.

Trying to breastfeed your adopted baby does take time. Ideally, you would be able to work on stimulating lactation for a full month before your adopted baby arrives. However, it is relatively rare that an adopting mother would have this much advanced warning. Stimulating lactation can be done by using a high-quality breast milk pump, and using it several times a day. Ultimately, you would want to be using it around 9 or 10 times each day.

It is also true that a mother who has not been pregnant will probably not produce a full supply of milk. She will almost always have to supplement breastfeeding her adopted baby with formula. In some cases, you may be able to supplement your breast milk with donor breast milk, instead of formula. Still, the adoptive mother and the adopted baby are able to share the closeness and bonding that is so important during breastfeeding. Whether or not your baby gets all of her nutritional needs met from your breastmilk, you can at least feel as though you are contributing to her nutritional needs, and can experience the important skin-to-skin contact that breastfeeding brings to you and to your baby.

Posted in Adoption

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