Home Forums Induced Lactation aka Adoptive Breastfeeding Natural Methods to Induce Lactation/Increase Milk Supply Medical issues need natural induction

I have been pg 6 times have 2 boys and breastfed twice on my own. After the last child we had I could not have anymore due to medical issues. We have a surrogate who is pregnant and I want to breastfeed. I talked to a lactation consultant and she said all I had to do was pump and milk should come in. I can not take any of the OTC meds like milk thistle or the domperidone or birth control pills etc for bringing in milk supply do to all my allergies to medications. Does anyone have any idea if I can induce by just pumping alone? If so how does this work just pump? The breastfeeding consultant I talked to said pump every 2 hours for 15 min each time and at least once in middle the night. And when should I start? Our baby is due June 2012. And our surrogate is willing to pump for me.

Yes, you can achieve a supply by simply pumping. It's difficult to say how much milk you'll have, because past success is supposedly no indicator of future success in this, but you can certainly do it and the bonding benefits alone are well worth it (at least, they were to me!). I think the schedule in the protocols is a pretty good start at it... 6 weeks before your due date - start pumping. Here is a link to the protocol instructions on it: http://asklenore.info/breastfeeding/induced_lactation/regular_protocol.shtml which allow for you to pump only every three hours during the day at first, and then when you're a month out from the due date, add at least one night pumping and pump every 2 hours during the day.

I would recommend starting as soon as possible. The more time you have pumping the better chance you have of getting enough to make it worthwhile. I pumped for 7 months along with taking dom and herbs and got up to 6 oz/day in anticipation of you first surrogate delivery. The regular protocol guidelines for pumping is only if you are taking bcp and dom. The idea behind them is completely different than pumping alone. I would start pumping for 15-20 minutes every 3 hours when you are about 6 weeks before deliver you can start pumping every 2 hours and add a night time pumping.

It takes a lot of dedication but it helps to build up a little frozen stash. Good luck!!