Here’s the Cliff-Notes style version of how I was able to successfully nurse my son as well as a quick disclaimer: This is intended for informational purposes only and is not intended to be medical advice in any way. This is my own personal experience, and I am not a certified lactation consultant or a physician.
I started researching it a couple of years before D2 came along. ABRW helped tremendously! The community there are very supportive and the information is fantastic.
About two or three months before he came, I ordered the medications recommended by Dr. Jack Newman, otherwise known as “The Newman Protocol”. Two months before he came (not knowing he was coming, mind you), I began taking the birth control pill recommended (single hormone, intended to mimic the body’s hormonal response during pregnancy). I should also mention here that 16 months prior to his arrival, I had a total hysterectomy. No uterus, no ovaries.
When D2 came, it was a whirlwind. We had one foster baby at the time the call came, and the next morning I had handed off Baby Boy to his Grandma (hooray! I love that!) and picked up D2 that same afternoon! I stopped the hormones and switched to the milk-making medication, Domperidone, as well as the herbs Blessed Thistle and Fenugreek, and began a pumping regimen.
Medela Supplemental Nursing System
D2’s first feeding at home was formula in an at-the-breast Supplemental Nursing System. It took me a while to get the hang of using it, but he latched right on first try and didn’t mind the SNS tube at all.
After I fed him, I pumped. By the end of the first week, I was so tired of the nurse-then-pump routine, that I started pumping on one side while he nursed on the other. It cut down on my time away from the other kids, which helped a lot. I also had a toddler and was homeschooling 3rd and 5th grades, so that was important. I started seeing milk droplets around the middle of the third week.
When D2 was 2 weeks old, he started showing blood in his stools. The GI specialist said he had a milk protein allergy. A cow’s milk protein allergy. At this point I was still not public about nursing him, and didn’t tell the doctor… but I did ask if he would prescribe banked breast milk for him. He said he could, but “there isn’t anywhere around here for you to get it anyway”.
Another doctor knows best, right? Wrong. Since he had said it would help, I filed that in the back of my brain. He prescribed a formula change to a special hypo-allergenic brand that costs double and probably contains more chemicals than household cleaning supplies. And WIC wouldn’t cover it either.
{Northwest Mother’s Milk Bank is just one place you can go if you need banked milk, or would like to donate some of your surplus!}
When we were hospitalized a couple weeks later for a kidney infection, his social worker came to see how he was doing. I told her what the GI doc had said about maybe trying banked milk. (We’d seen him the week prior.) I was still feeling her out, trying to see how she felt about things without coming right out and just telling her we were breastfeeding. She said the Most Glorious Words I’ve ever heard a social worker say…
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