Choosing to breastfeed a baby is a personal choice. There is no “right” or “wrong” decision about whether or not to breastfeed your adopted baby. If you choose to do it, you will face some challenges, but the benefits to your baby will hopefully be enough to make it worth the effort.

If you decide that you want to breastfeed your adopted baby, start looking into it while you are still waiting to be matched. Adoption matches can happen quickly, so you might not have time to order the supplementation supplies and figure out what you are doing before the baby comes. Adoptive breastfeeding takes some planning, so do your research now so that you will be ready to start as soon as your baby arrives.

Think about the issues that I presented in the last post, such as when to start the adoptive breastfeeding. Do you want to do it while the birthmother could still choose to parent the baby? If not, you might want to research the challenges of teaching a baby to breastfeed after starting out with a bottle. From what I have read on-line, this can be done. However, since this was not my experience, I cannot speak to the challenges personally.

You will need to decide how much effort to put into trying to achieve lactation. Do you want to purchase a breast pump to assist in lactating? This is not necessary but has been helpful to some women to ensure lactation. I did not use one, and I did not succeed in lactating. Do you want to commit to pumping or feeding the baby every two hours to help ensure lactation, or is allowing the baby (and yourself) to sleep for longer periods of time at night a higher priority?

Also, give yourself permission to give it the “old college try” and then switch to bottles if breastfeeding is not working for you. Breastfeeding should be about bonding with your baby, not a mission to force your body to lactate. If you take the attitude that you are going to do what works for you and your baby, you will probably be more at peace with your decisions about feeding your baby, whether you choose to continue breastfeeding or switch to bottles. Stressing yourself out if your body does not do what you want can take the enjoyment out of what should be a very special time in your life.

For more information about adoptive breastfeeding, check out the following websites:

• Adoption.com


• The Adoptive Breastfeeding Resource Website


• La Leche League


• Ask Lenore Info


• Adopting.org