Hi Joelle,
Congratulations on your new little boy!!! It's never too late to bring in your milk supply. If you want to, you can. You will need to devote yourself to pumping and working at building your milk supply. You can turn this situation around rapidly if you dedicate yourself to your mission.
Providing breastmilk to your premature infant is particularly important because of his immature immune system. Every drop of milk you provide is like liquid gold for this child. Think of your milk as "gut paint" to provide protection for your infant from pathogens. There is a component in breastmilk, Secretory Iimmunoglobulin A (Sec IgA) that provides major immune protection. Some Sec IgA migrates to the lungs and provides protection from respiratory infections. As I said, your breastmilk is powerful stuff. Preemeis who are breastfeed have demonstrated an IQ 8 - 10 points higher.
But you'll need to pump because there is a whey protein that sits in the milk called the "Feedback Inhibitor of Lactation" (FIL). You need to get that thing out of there and the only way to do that is to drain your breasts. The more you drain them, the more milk you will have but it doesn't happen overnight. It takes at least a week to see a change.
The domperidone will provide you with a lot of help. Domperidone takes about 72 hours to affect your milk supply and about 3 weeks to peak in your system.
It's very important that you arrange a home visit with a board certified lactation consultant (IBCLC). You can find one here
www.iblce.org Just click on the "About IBLCE" button and the US and International registries pop up. The IBCLC is a clinically trained breastfeeding support person who will be able to provide you with all kinds of strategies to get your baby back to the breast.
Supplementation is best done at the breast. Most moms use the Lact-aid
www.lact-aid.com This provides supplementation at the same time as providing stimulation to your breasts and helping you to drain them to get rid of the FIL. It's a case of use them or lose them...the more you use your breasts, the more milk you will have.
Which pump are you usuing? You need a good one. Most moms use the Medela Classic or Pump in Style Original or Lactina. There's a new pump available from Limerick called the Pj Junior. I've been testing this pump and I'm very impressed with it. It's available through Joan Ortiz
joan.ortiz@limerickinc.com Start with this and please keep me posted. You can do this. Remember, I induced lactation and breastfed my preemie son without the benefit of pregnancy. You're way ahead of where I was.
Best,
