When picturing myself as a mother I always imagined that I would breastfeed our children. I had always heard that “breast is best” and knew that breatmilk has been the ideal form of nutrition since the beginning of time. But, when we chose adoption as the route to build our family I assumed that they would be formula-fed. I didn’t know there was another option!

But miraculously a couple of months before we were matched with Little Piñata, I found the blog of another adoptive mom that had breastfed her two sons! I couldn’t believe it and had never heard of induced lactation before. The idea was really intriguing to me and I was really attracted to it. I began researching and discovered that with the help of prescription medication (such as Domperidone) and herbs (like Fenugreek) and consistent pumping, it IS possible to produce breastmilk, even without a previous pregnancy!

I actually added a breast pump to our registry that we started when we became home study approved. But I didn’t think I was up to pumping without having an official match. So I decided that once we were matched, I would begin pumping every few hours and would talk to my doctor about what supplements I should take. Well of course nothing ever goes according to plan. We were chosen by a birth mother that was due in just 3 weeks, and she gave birth just a week later before we even got a chance to meet her. So there was truly no time to pump ahead of time!

Thankfully, my research also led me to investigate donated breastmilk. I had recently learned that infants (and toddlers too) can drink breastmilk from other women besides their moms. Of course I had always heard of wet nurses, but I figured that idea didn’t really exist anymore, but it (kind of) does. I found websites where women were selling their milk for as much as $5/oz! I was also connected with Human Milk 4 Human Babies. This organization connects women with extra breastmilk with those looking for breastmilk for their babies for whatever reason (adoption, low supply, etc.).

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I posted a need on our state’s HM4HB site and was quickly contacted with a couple of local moms! On the day Little Piñata was born, a mother about 15 miles away offered 100 ounces of milk, so off we drove to meet her and get our first milk donation. This mama was so kind and sweet and offered us the biggest congratulations. We also met her husband and sweet baby girl. She told me that newborns take about 15 oz a day, so I was thrilled that it seemed like this milk would last about a week!

Early the next morning we drove 3 hours to the city where Little P was born. It was a complete whirlwind of a day! When we got back to our hotel that night, I had a voicemail from another mom that had seen our post on the Human Milk 4 Human Babies site. She wanted to donate 1,500 ounces of breastmilk! I was completely amazed as this gift was more than I ever could have imagined! It turns out this mom did A LOT of pumping to get ready for her return to work. However, she had the lipase enzyme in her milk so when she thawed her milk, her baby wouldn’t take it. She was planning to donate to a national “milk bank,” but saw our post about adopting our son, was moved and called me! Of course I called her back immediately. She lived about 25 miles from us, so we agreed to meet up once we got back into town (and I had a chance to process the fact that there would be a baby living in our house!).

I couldn’t believe it! Just a month earlier I had NO idea that we would soon be parents. And even more shocking was the realization that through the gifts of these two amazingly generous women, our son would have the gift of breastmilk for the first weeks and maybe even months of his life! A gift that I was unable to give him. How humbling to bring home a baby that you didn’t give birth to and to feed him milk that you didn’t produce. Yet, he is still your son. Wow. Even more amazing are the details that came together in the coming days. But, I’ll have to share all those details in Part 2.

I know everyone’s journey of infant nutrition is so unique. There are many beautiful and also difficult journeys with breastfeeding, formula, etc. Has anyone else had experiences with donated breastmilk as a recipient or as a donor? Or have any adoptive moms that tried induced lactation?