How Jamie, who adopted her baby, pumped for four months to induce lactation before her daughter was born so they could bond through breastfeeding
“I always knew I wanted to be a mom and there are many children who need a good home. I really feel like breastfeeding is the best start for a mom and baby and I wanted to ensure I gave that to my daughter.” Jamie had always wanted to be a mom and as someone who’d worked for a breastfeeding company for more than 20 years, she knew right from the start that she’d do all she could to try to breastfeed her child.
Jamie’s adoption progressed quite quickly once she’d made her decision. She had a gut feeling that she needed to prepare early in the process, creating what’s known as a “birth album” right at the beginning. This is an album that tells Jamie’s life story. It’s presented to birth moms who are considering adoption and are trying to choose the right future mom to match with.
She worked with a doctor and lactation consultant and under their supervision, used a combination of medication, supplements, and breast pumping to begin producing breastmilk.
After sharing Jamie’s book with her new client, the client immediately said, “Oh! This is the mother of my child,” and she and Jamie were introduced via phone. This was several months before the baby was born so Jamie had the chance to attend prenatal appointments and prepare for her baby’s arrival.
She said, “I knew that breastfeeding was the best start for baby. I also knew that with adoption, breastfeeding is particularly important for bonding, and so I followed my doctor’s protocol to a T.” This meant that, in addition to taking medication and galactagogue, Jamie also began breast pumping every three hours – at first during the day, then also through the night.
“I was working from home so I’d just wear my hands-free breast pumping bra around the house and then every three to four hours, I’d pump and massage according to my doctor’s protocol.” After a month and a half, Jamie’s dedication paid off: “One day I looked down and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I'm sweating white! What's going on? And I was like, oh my gosh it's working!’ I was so excited and I was even more motivated. I was very grateful.”
When the birth mother went into labor, Jamie packed her breast pump and the breastmilk she’d stored so far and joined the birth mom at the hospital. Jamie breastfed her new daughter just six hours after she was born.
The bottom line: Thanks to Jamie’s persistence, a supportive medical team, and an amazing birth mom, Jamie was able to breastfeed her daughter for four months. They created a beautiful bond and still make time for snuggles every day.
Jamie’s pumping tricks of the trade:
- Massage: “The thing that really helped me was breast massage. I was told to breast pump for 5-7 minutes, then stop and massage and shake my breasts, and then pump again. I saw a significant difference in how much milk I expressed when I introduced the massage and shake concept.”
- Simple wishes pumping bra: “The sizing is universal so it'll fit many different sizes of people, which is wonderful. But the best thing is that you can pump hands free, so every time that I pumped with the bra I was able to do breast massage too. It was a game changer - because if you think of breast pumping without it, you have to hold the flanges and then, how could you do breast massage? But with the bra, you're able to actually have the breast flanges in place but continue to massage as well. So you can do that whole pump, massage, shake thing and not worry about spilling!
