Breastfeeding Baby - Adoptive Breastfeeding

Adoptive Breastfeeding

Something that is become more and more common among the adopting moms of new babies is breastfeeding the newborn. Although a mother did not give birth to her new adopted baby she can still breastfeed. How can this be, through adoptive breastfeeding.

Adoptive breastfeeding happens when a mother who may have never been pregnant before induces lactation through pumping and having a baby nurse at the breast. Although the milk supply will not happen over night moms find it worth it to provide their adopted babies with mama's milk.

An effective way to induce lactation is to pump breast milk ,before your baby arrives ideally, to use in a nursing supplementer. Then when your baby breastfeeds your milk supply will be increasing and your baby will get the milk that they need from the nursing supplementer. By continuing to pump and nurse, even comfort sucking works well too, your milk supply will continue to grow. Medela Nursing Supplementer on their website.

If at all possible begin pumping before your baby arrives. At first there will be no milk, you will want to start slow, pumping each breast for 5 minutes many times a day, with each day increasing amount of time that you pump. Breast milk, if only a few drops, can appear as early as 2 weeks with this method. You can find natural ways to increase your milk supply in Breastfeeding Challenges: Low Milk Supply. If you are unable to pump milk before your baby arrives and are not able to produce enough milk to fill the supplementer you can find a breast milk bank where you can purchase milk. Donating Breast Milk can offer resources for finding a breast milk bank.

For what ever reason that you are needing to induce lactation it is great that you have decided to do so, avoiding the consumption of formula that your baby would have to put up with. Most likely if you did not receive your baby on their day of birth they were given formula in the hospital. Adoptive breastfeeding is a wonderful thing that a mom can do for their adopted baby.

Extra Resource Adoption.com Breastfeeding Section