I Want My New Baby To Benefit From Breast Milk
So often you hear that breastfeeding is the best way to feed your new baby. Studies have shown that breastfeeding may reduce the risk of many health issues for newborn babies. Breast milk contains antibodies that help your baby fight off viruses and bacteria. It also lowers the risk of ear infections, asthma and childhood obesity. But what happens when you as the intended parents are not able to breastfeed?
There are many ways that your baby can still get the benefits of breast milk. There are many milk banks that are available for parents to receive breast milk from. The cost can range from $3.00-$5.00 per ounce. These are often non-profit organizations so the cost helps cover the screening of the breast milk.
Most hospitals will also provide donated breastmilk to parents that are unable to breastfeed. All milk that is donated to the hospital has been checked for any harmful bacteria. The mother has also gone through a very intense screening process to make sure she doesn’t have any harmful illnesses to be passed through the milk.
Another option that you, as intended parents, may want to consider is the possibility of using the breastmilk from your surrogate. Before your baby is born (before matching, ideally!), you and your surrogate will discuss if she is willing to pump after the baby is born and for how long. If you and your surrogate agree to her pumping for you and the baby, you will provide compensation for her time and the cost of supplies needed while pumping.
Pumping is very time consuming. Your surrogate will be getting up very 2-3 hours to pump for at least 30 min, yes even in the middle of the night. Let us not forget the supplies. She will need a breast pump and some way to store the breast milk. And remember those things don’t clean themselves. It is almost like a part time job.
Once the breast milk is stored and ready to go the surrogate will then have to ship it to you or if you live within driving distance will have to drop it off to you. If she is shipping it, that can be very costly. The breast milk will have to be shipped overnight in an insulated box with dry ice. There are certain requirements that need to be followed when shipping with dry ice for safety reasons.
Some intended mothers that plan on inducing lactation and breastfeeding their baby. This can be done by going to you physician and ask about taking prescribed hormones that imitate the hormone levels during pregnancy. Those medications are then withdrawn after a while to trick the body into thinking it gave birth. A new medication called galactagogue, which is a milk stimulating substance, can then be taken to trigger breast milk.
There are many benefits of breast milk, but if that is not an option for you, formula feed babies are healthy too. Formula has the nutrition the baby needs as well. New Mexico Surrogacy is proud to help create happy and healthy families.