Hi ladies-I know BOTB day was yesterday but....

Brown-eyed-bride

Hi Ladies,

 I know I am a lurker and that BOTB day was yesterday but I have a question. I hope I do not offend anyone, it is not my intention if I do.

I'm sure you have all heard of the pregnant man, yes?

Well I was following up on that story and saw that after the couple had their little girl that the wife would be breastfeeding with the help of hormonal injections. I had no idea that it was possible for a woman who had not given birth to breastfeed. Well that got me thinking.........

If a child has two mothers, who both have the ability to nurse a child could they both breastfeed and if that is a possibility would you consider doing that? As a former breastfeeding mother I am a huge advocate of breastfeeding and the idea of having another mother be able to breastfeed as well seems heavenly!! DH was always willing to take over for the night but that meant that I had to make sure that I had pumped enough to get through the night. To be able to have another person on hand that could breastfeed without really having to prepare sounds awsome!

Have any of thought about this and are considering it, or would you rather the mother that birthed the child also be the person that breastfeeds the baby (if as a couple you choose to breastfeed instead of formula)?

Thanks!

 

bluedaisyus

actually we missed our regular post yesterday. how did that happen? although we've been pretty slow around here this week...or maybe we're all just really busy irl...

anyway, we actually discussed this a while ago in one of our ttc posts--although i believe it disappeared when the format change happened. my wife and i intend to breastfeed, and i honestly hadn't thought much about the possibility of both of us breastfeeding until that post. i did a bit of reading after that, and even if we wanted to i don't believe i would be able to when she carries because of the hormones they use to artificially stimulate milk production. it is definitely an interesting prospect, though.

2brides

Yes, you can get a non-birth mom to lactate.  Dr. Jack Newman (breastfeeding guru) has all of the information on his site: http://tiny.cc/NSgSJ. It involves taking horomones and lots of pumping.  I know that it has worked for some moms and not so much for others (just based on how your body reacts to the hormones, etc.)  It is a huge commitment (pumping every 2 hours round the clock for several weeks.)

We were going to do it.  As the birth mom (I hate that term) I was more than thrilled at the oppurtunity to share breastfeeding duties - especially since we have twins!  We did all of the research, talked to a lactation consultant, and in the end my wife's doc wouldn't write for the domperidone (horomone) since it hasn't been FDA approved. You can get it from New Zealand pretty easily though.  Plus, after some more research we read that those with an underlying cardiac condition shouldn't take it.  Given that my wife has a pretty signaficant murmur, we decided to opt against it.

 We could have used a supplemental nursing system http://tiny.cc/2N33F but in the end we didn't (too exhausted, I guess.) 

 
I did end up exclusively BFing the boys for the first 4.5 months (primarily through pumping) and then we had to supplement because they were eating me out of house and home (I was pumping 70-80oz a day and it still wasn't enough!)  I pumped/BF until the kids were 11.5 months old.  L did "nurse" the babies a couple of time when they weren't hungry but were just out of sorts and needed to soothe. I think she was worried about not bonding with them since she couldn't BF, but she couldn't be any more bonded to them (or them to her) if she'd given birth to them. 

 I think it is awesome for families who do make this choice!  Of course the primary BFer (most likely birth mom) is going to have to probably still pump at night to 1) relieve engorgement 2)keep up supply - but it is still worth it!

 
Alison - mom to Grayson and Carter 5.18.06
 

 

 

Brown-eyed-bride

Yes I thought that this would be particularly good for a mom of twins! It's very interesting to hear your thoughts. I hadn't really thought of having to pump at night anyway, but I do remember being engorged while I was working and only pumping twice a day and who could sleep through that!? Haha, thanks for the responses and for indulging my curious mind!

Two*True

Maybe this is TMI but K has really big, heavy breast.  The thought of adding milk to them terrifies her.  So while I think the idea is great and could easily work for some people it's not the path we're taking.  I'll carry and I'll breast feed. She once told me she would feel as though she had udders and that creeped her our - lol!

jayangel

My wife and I both plan to give birth to one child each but I will be breastfeeding both children. Our original plan was for me to have the first child so I would still be producing milk for the second baby but after much consideration we've decided she will give birth first and I will look into the hormone treatments and pumping methods. My wife doesn't like the idea of her having to breast feed so that leaves all the feeding up to me.