Živilė Druskytė¹, assoc. prof. Eglė Markūnienė²

¹  Faculty of Medicine, Academy of Medicine, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences

² Department of Neonatology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences

ABSTRACT

Breastfeeding is accepted as the preferred method of infant nutrition for various reasons, not only nutritional but also emotional. Breastfeeding is associated with a risk reduction of child infections, including necrotizing enterocolitis and sudden infant death syndrome. For those who have adopted  a child, there is a desire to induce lactation for adoptive nursing. Sometimes women are biologically related to the babies they are inducing for (grandmothers, biological mothers of surrogate pregnancies) and sometimes lactation is induced in the absence of any genetic connection. A combination of nonpharmacological and  pharmacological methods is often used for the induction of lactation.

Keywords: induction of lactation, adopted child, breastfeeding, breast milk.