Breastfeeding in Surrogacy

If you intend to become parents through surrogacy, you can share the same bonding with your child born out of surrogacy, with proper preparation.

You must be surprised and at the same time excited to know that you can breastfeed your child born out of surrogacy even without experiencing pregnancy. Since most of the surrogate mothers deny to literally breastfeed the child, it sometimes becomes difficult for the intended parents to provide the required nutrition to the newborn. Breastfeeding is immensely important for every new-born as this milk supplies them all the required elements to build the basic immunity and protect themselves from diseases.

Surrogate mothers avoid direct breastfeeding in order to keep away from the sentiments that might grow with this. They tend to get attached to the baby after breastfeeding and hence mostly stay away from this. Induced lactation makes it possible for the new moms to experience breastfeeding their child. In this article, we have discussed the procedures of breastfeeding for the baby born out of surrogacy. With induced lactation, the intended mother can herself feed the baby and provide her baby the required nutrition.

How Can The Intended Mother Breastfeed Her Surrogate-Born Baby?

If you intend to breastfeed your surrogacy-born-baby, you should consult your doctor during the gestational period. It is important to introduce induce lactation medicine within the correct time-frame to enable you to breastfeed your child.

The medication requires some advanced preparation, as the procedure of breastfeeding a surrogate-born baby is quite similar to nursing any other newborn.

Here is the breastfeeding procedure for intended parents:

Initiating hormone intake

The doctor prescribes hormones in the intended mother’s body by giving her birth control pills first. This is usually a “trick” to make the body think that she is pregnant. This state is the prime predecessor to milk production.

The hormones are later replaced with supplements and medications. The doctor stops the birth control pills before the baby’s arrival and usually recommends herbal supplements or other medications to promote milk production.

Begin pumping

Pumping should be started soon after the hormones are stopped and milk-producing medications are introduced. The duration and frequency of pumping should be gradually increased and the body will eventually start producing milk. The intended mom should follow her doctor’s instructions and every protocol of induced lactation to prepare herself for the baby’s birth.

Begin nursing your child and supplement your milk

At times the intended mother does not produce enough milk to completely sustain her baby with inducing lactation. In such cases, they choose to go for the Supplemental Nursing System (SNS) to make sure that the babies get enough to eat.

In this process, the supplemental milk (milk donated by milk donors or the surrogate’s breast milk or the milk that she has previously pumped) is poured into the SNS container. The container is taped to the mother’s chest. While nursing the baby with the help of the SNS container, the baby gets the mother’s breast milk, along with the milk stored in the SNS container. Thus, the baby gets plenty to drink.

Using the Surrogate Mother’s Breast Milk

Using the surrogate’s breast milk is another option for those intended parents who are in strong favor of the benefits of breastfeeding.

There might be surrogate mothers who are willing to pump milk for up to six weeks following to the baby’s delivery. This milk is used by the intended parents to feed the baby with the supplemental nursing system. This allows the baby to receive equal benefits of breast milk, irrespective of the fact that the intended mother decides to breastfeed.

Now, this is a considerable job for the surrogate to continue to pump her breast milk and spend time and energy in it. Pumping and shipping the milk to reach the intended parents is not an easy task to do. It requires continuous pumping and immediate transportation to ensure that the milk reaches the baby in its best form. If the surrogate mother has agreed to provide pumped milk for her surrogate baby, she needs to do it at regular intervals, which requires serious dedication. Such human job, even if rendered against money, should be very religiously accomplished in order to avoid any inconvenience to the baby or the intended parents, who are paying for it.

For the same reason, the surrogates claim to be compensated for this extended service commitment that they agree to render to the intended family. This includes the cost of maintenance of the surrogate mother during this period to produce enough milk, shipping costs and the other supplies required for the process.

If you, as an intended parent, wish to use the surrogate’s breast milk after the baby’s birth, you need to discuss and negotiate about the same prior to the embryo transfer. It should be taken into account that surrogate mother may agree prior to embarking the program but as after baby delivery they are undergoing lots of emotions, they may change their mind. Parents should be ready to respect their decision no matter what the earlier agreement was.