How to cause lactation?
One theory is that the act of an infant suckling at the breast will stimulate hormone production to initiate lactation. Here in the USA I have never seen an adoptive mother successfully breast feed. I cannot recall if any even successfully establish lactation, but some adoptive mothers achieved partial success using a lactation aid device where a thin tube ran along the breast and supplied formula to the infant. Obviously this is not what you want. Over forty years ago I worked at a hospital in Haiti. Grandmothers would nurse their grandchildren while waiting in line to see the doctor. At first I thought that this was just non-nutritive sucking, but one grandmother demonstrated that she was actually lactating. She had not been pregnant recently and had not lactated for many years. My interpreter said this was common practice. My medical colleagues still look at me incredulously when I recount this story. If you attempt this fine, but not to the extent that the baby will become dehydrat
Natural lactation cannot be induced without any prescription, however all things are possible now with the help of advance medicines, and there are safe prescription out there that can help you, just make sure you consult with your oby or doctor. I know you have good intentions and I salute you for that! Good luck!
Definitely check out the book The Nursing Mother’s Companion. There is a whole section in the book about how to induce lactation in the case of adoption. It was a GREAT book in general, as I read it when I came home from the hospital (wish I read it sooner..). It gave you the whole process on how to go about inducing lactation and the sooner you read it, the better because according to the book, the more time you give yourself to produce, the better chance you will have.
Here are a couple of links l found for you: http://www.babycenter.com/0_breastfeedin… http://www.mothering.com/articles/new_ba… http://pediatrics.about.com/library/brea… Your best idea would probably be to contact a lactation consultant and/or the La Leche League. They are an organization specializing in breastfeeding. http://www.llli.org/ Good luck and thumbs up to you for wanting to breastfeed!
