Surrogate question

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know whether or not you can breastfeed if you use a surrogate? I've been googling but not sure if the answers are correct.

[Anonymous]

It would be very very difficult. There have been cases of induced lactation in women who have not been previously pregnant but it requires hours and hours of pumping, taking drugs/supplements and the likelihood of producing enough to feed your baby would be extremely low. Is your surrogate willing to pump for you?

[Anonymous]

You can do it but you may not produce a ton of milk. I think it's a good way to bond even if you have to supplement.

[Anonymous]

Google ask Lenore she has a ton of information about induced lactation for babies born through adoption and surrogacy

[Anonymous]

Yes, you can induce lactation. I did it as an adoptive mom. It's not has hard as the PP made it out to be. Google adoptive breastfeeding. You will get more results.

[Anonymous]

There was a chapter about ut in a breastfeeding book I read, canadian author. It can be done.
There is also some sort of pouch with tubing that you can use to feed the baby formula at the breast. Baby latches onto the breast with the tubing also in the mouth. Stimulates milk production at the same time.

[Anonymous]

My RE said there are induced lactation protocols which will allow you to breastfeed. I haven't asked for details since we are still early in the surrogacy process, but it does seem possible.

[Anonymous]

OP...are you asking for bonding reasons or for the health benefits? If solely for health reasons, I'm wondering if you'd thought about asking your surtogate to pump after the birth?

We opted not to do this but now I am having second thoughts (our surrogate is 8 wks pg). I don't even know if she is open to the idea, we haven't actually discussed it. The question came up with our lawyers when we were doing the contract initially. Wondering now if I should ask her how she feels about and if she would be willing to consider this. If so, do you think it would require the contracts to be officially amended to detail cost, frequency, etc.? Or is it possible to work all that out with an informal agreement?

[Anonymous]

I'm an adoptive mom, and I looked into adoptive breastfeeding. One of the things that makes it hard for adoptive moms to induce lactation is that you should start the protocols before the baby is born, and many adoptive mothers don't get a lot of advanced notice. I found out about my child on a Tuesday, and brought him home on Friday, so there was no time for months of preparation. With a surrogate you'll have a much clearer time frame, so I would imagine that would increase the likelihood of success, although I admit that I didn't research surrogacy situations in particular.

You can, of course, also allow your child to nurse at your breast, for the purposes of bonding and comfort, even if you aren't producing milk. There are devices called supplemental nursing systems that allow you to feed your child at your breast. I looked into those, but ended up with a child who was HIV exposed. At that point, there wasn't conclusive evidence one way or the other as to whether a child could transmit the virus to their mother via breastfeeding, and so my adoption agency recommended against it and we didn't do it.

[Anonymous]

I had a double mast due to BC and am in a same-sex relationship. I discussed the possibility of my wife inducing lactation should I get pregnant with my oncologist. She said she could, but counseled against it, stating that there was no evidence for what that introduction of hormones could due to my wife especially in terms of BC or other cancers down the road. She said that she had two kids - one EBF and the other got formula. She said her formula fed kid is actually healthier over time than her EBF kid.

So for health reasons I don't think it's worth it, but it is possible.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone done a protocol for induced lactation that would be willing to share experiences offline?
Are there lactation consultants in DC area that can consult on this?
Thanks in advance!

[Anonymous]

Hire the surrogate as your wet nurse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hire the surrogate as your wet nurse.

And live in nanny.

[Anonymous]

Don't let the crazy or judgey responses get to you on here. Most people never find themselves in the position of looking into surrogacy. I feel extremely lucky it was an option for me and am blessed by having two wonderful children now - and have a very nice relationship with our surrogate (gestational carrier) who was a miracle worker for us. Anyway, my advise is to talk to a real live doctor about it. I talked to several. I wasn't able to BF - the doctors advised they would help to try if I really wanted to, but it is generally hard to do successfully. I had an underlying health reason (reason for surrogacy in the first place) that made in unadvisable. We were not able to have our surrogate pump & send. I know a couple people who did do that.