This is going to be a little more of an informative post about how, exactly, my Mommy induced lactation using the Goldfarb Protocol. I am not; however, suggesting you do this (always consult a doctor before making serious changes in your body), but if you're curious about inducing lactation, here's how we did it:
There are a few different routes you can take, depending upon how much time you have until you want to start feeding. If you absolutely can't wait, you can do it in about 2 months. You're basically going to trick your breasts into thinking you got pregnant with birth control pills. If you cannot take standard birth control pills you can use provera instead. You'll also be taking domperidone, first in combination with the bcp's and later just by itself.
So you're going to want to take birth control pills for at least 30 days before you start pumping (you'll want to be off before you start pumping) but the longer the better. If you want to do it as fast as possible:
Start taking birth control 2 months before feeding, and 20 mg of domperidone 4x a day. Do not take the placebos in the bcps just take the real ones.
1 month before feeding, suspend the bcp usage but continue taking 20 mg domperidone 4x daily. Start pumping your breasts with a double electric breast pump. You're going to want to do at least 10 minutes per breast at least 8 times a day, at least one of those being between 1 and 5 am when there's heightened milk production. You'll probably have to work your way up / ease into it - just do what you can handle. But the more frequent you can the better because the more often you pump the more milk your breasts will produce. Think about it like this... a newborn is probably going to want to feed between every 2 to 3 hours... so you're going to want to be able to pump often so you're prepared for that.
If you're doing it for ANR, you and your partner may not want to feed that often, but pump anyways.There's a lot of good information on asklenore.com - I believe it's the website of the person who developed the protocol - including pumping instructions here: http://www.asklenore.info/breastfeeding/induced_lactation/pumping_instructions.shtml
If you have more time take the bcps for over 60 days. Stop taking them 6 weeks before feeding - the first week you stop them take 10mg domperidone 4x daily, then increase to 20 mg domperidone 4x daily and stay there for the remainder of the time you're on domperidone. Start pumping 6 weeks before feeding, too.
It doesn't really matter how long you've been pumping for except to train your breast to be able to do more pumps - the frequency is what's going to actually increase your breast pump output. So you don't need to be pumping for 4 months before feeding since after a few weeks of getting used to it, you should be able to pump the recommended 8-12x daily.
When you're pumping (4 weeks before feeding for milk rush, 6 weeks for quantity buildup) you can start taking several different types of herbs to increase production, like fenugreek, mother's milk, and blessed thistle. Also, eating oatmeal everyday will increase your yield, too.
I hope you found this helpful, if you have any questions feel free to ask or check out Ask Lenore. All the information there can be a little intimidating, so this is basically the Goldfarb protocol in a nutshell. Of course you should always consult a physician before starting any medications, including bcp's. Many women can/should NOT take them. But if you can, or if you can take provera, and wish to induce lactation I wish you good luck! I'd love to hear how you did it if you did it a different way, or about your experiences in ANR.
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