Home Forums Induced Lactation aka Adoptive Breastfeeding Medical Interventions to Induce Lactation/Increase Milk Supply pumping diary - hopefully this will help someone

Hello all,

I tried (unsuccessfully) to induce lactation via the accelerated protocol before my daughter was born. I did 50 days of prometrium/dom and then pumped for 2 weeks before/6 incredibly frustrating weeks with the baby. At that point I was doing everything recommended (herbs, meds, oatmeal, water) and never made more than 7ml in a single day. I decided that it wasn't worth the stress and aggravation and "gave up" my dream of nursing my surro-daughter.

Giving up lasted about a day before I called a real lactation doctor to restart the protocol. I nursed my bio-son for ~2 years, and thought that if there was still a chance to nurse my daughter I wanted to exhaust every possible avenue. The doctor said that she had never seen someone who had previously nursed successfully NOT have success on her protocol. For the past 3 months I have been taking Yasmin, dom, and metformin (to help with PCOS). Today I started with herbs, tea, lact-aid, pumping, and Oxytocin sprays.

There are plenty of people who seem to magically have 40 oz on this protocol, but I want to provide those of us who don't with a real idea of what induced lactation can look like.

Day 1: a few random drops on the nipple when pumping but after a hysterical morning feed my daughter has fortunately remembered how to latch and seems to enjoy the closeness of nursing.

I forgot to mention that I was pretty devistated when induced lactation failed as it felt like another instance of my body betraying me, but Molly has absolutely thrived on bottles and formula. It wasn't been nearly as big of a deal as I thought it would be, and I have still been able to bond with my surro-daughter. This time around I am putting much less pressure on myself. If it works, great. If not, we'll just go back to bottles and she will be absolutely fine.

Also I have gained a solid 10 lbs since my daughter was born (124 to 134) . Definitely doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy about inducing lactation.

Day 2 - pretty dry today. I think I got a drop.

My daughter slept in my arms with only one feed overnight yesterday. Best night's sleep she has gotten in a long time. She seems pretty content to nurse. I just hope it works.

Are you using a lactaid? If so, you should see increases just from nursing. You might not know it, but after a few weeks, you will probably be making at least a few ounces a day.

And remember, nursing is about more than just the milk. It is the bonding too. You can get that with a lactaid.

Jennifer

I am using a lact-aid. Otherwise my daughter would starve.

Molly actually slept through the night last night, miraculously. The first pump of day 3 (without feeding first) produced 2-3 drops on the right and 1 drop on the left).

I'm not necessarily discouraged. I'm just journaling my experience in the hope that it helps someone else.

Separately, I am a bit confused about breastshield sizing. Per the Medela website the nipple should just fit inside the tube. I have very small nipples and large breasts. The hospital recommended going up to a 30ml. However quite a bit of the pink part is sucked into the tube when pumping. The pump rental store said that I should go down to a 21, and even still some of the pink part gets sucked into the tube. I tried pumping with the 24 I already had and the round part is not large enough to latch onto skin (it tries to make a seal on the pink part) and was incredibly painful to use. I went back to my 30s. Medela suggested ordering 27s, which should come next week.

End of day 3:

1-2 drops at most of the pumping sessions. Last 2 were completely dry. I don't know if it is a coincidence or not but I tried going down to the 24s with extra lubrication this evening. Hand expressing can usually get a drop to form if I squeeze really hard and massage does not do anything at all.

I had oatmeal for breakfast and dinner today.

Day 4:

Repeat of day 3. 1-2 drops max per pumping session, sometimes none at all. I switched back and forth between the 30s and the 24s and it didn't seem to make a difference. Also looking at pictures of crying babies is supposed to help, but I have actually held my screaming baby and I still don't produce any more.

I know it takes time for milk to come in, but there doesn't seem to be any progress/increase taking place at all. How long should I wait before I become concerned?

Day 5:

This morning a few drops on the left side actually fell into the collection area! For me it was very exciting. The right side was completely dry for the first pump of the day.

I nursed with lact-aid once on each side overnight but was too tired to pump.

Day 5 afternoon:

Several pumping sessions got 2-3 drops, but the last 2 of the day have been dry.

Ounces seems awfully far away.