Is it possible to breast feed octuplets???????????

[yarrow5]

i've just read on yahoo news that someone has just given birth to octuplets and is planning on breast feeding them all. Is this really possible?! Surely not?!

Thank you! I'll go and have a look.

Also want to join the wetnurse team, 4000 calories a day, now that sounds lovely (can easily think about how I would cover those 4000 calories... )

In all seriousness though, if she manages to get some of her breastmilk into each of these babies, that's already an achievement. I find the idea of exclusively bf octuplets kind of science-fictiony, to be honest (but I bet here on MN there are people who believe that anything having to do with bf is possible... pigs flying, anyone?)

Maria2007 - I can confirm it is very difficult to breastfeed flying pigs!

there is a lady who breastfed sextuplets, so it's not that "pigs might fly" to believe someone could bf octuplets.

you will produce as much milk as your child/ren demand, so of course it is possible.
I presume she will be expressing and bottlefeeding rather than direct breastfeeding because otherwise it would take her all day and the first 2 would be starving by the time it was their go again!

but good on her I say

and she hasn't said she plans on exclsuvively breastfeeding. even if she only managed enough for a few bottles each a day that would be fantastic

Great for her! I BF DS on the breast, expressed 20 mins every 2 hours to satisfy the peadiatrician, tried to use up some of those bottles and I still left the hospital with 'my' fridge shelf full. And DS was a hungry 10lb 5oz er 4000 calories? Where do we sign up to wet nurse?

Wet nursing clients might be tricky to find, but if you have a baby under 6 months then you could consider milk donation . It's not a huge burden and is a rewarding thing to do. Milk banks often take donors from a surprising distance, e.g. Blackpool has a depot for the wirral bank and Queen charlotte's in London take donors from quite far out into the counties surrounding north and west London.