Kim Kardashian Can Breastfeed Newborn Daughter, Born Via Surrogacy

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Kim Kardashian can still breastfeed he baby who was born to a surrogate mother.

She can do so by tricking her body into thinking she’s pregnant.

Kim, who has welcomed her third child with Kanye West, recently featured a breastfeeding pillow in a Snapchat video of her baby product haul, which left many of her followers wondering whether or not she can produce milk without being pregnant.

Surrogacy is a form of assisted reproduction which involves using a woman’s uterus to carry an embryo and deliver a baby for another person.

As experts explained to Daily Mail Online, there are many ways that the 37-year-old reality star can nurse her daughter.

Molly Petersen, certified lactation counselor at Lansinoh, a breastfeeding product company, told the Daily Mail Online that women such as Kim can produce breast milk through a process called induced lactation.

The concept of women nursing babies they didn’t give birth to isn’t completely new.

In the late 19th and 20th centuries, families hired ‘wet nurses’ — usually women who were already lactating from a recent pregnancy — to breastfeed their child.

Kim, who gave birth to Saint in 2015 and North in 2013, could, in fact, induce lactation without medication.

‘Some Moms can establish their supply without the use of any medical intervention. Simply putting baby to the breast can induce lactation,’ Petersen said.

It, however, gets a little tricky when a woman who hasn’t given birth wants to breastfeed a baby she did not give birth to.

The production of breast milk is a result of a complex interaction of 3 hormones — estrogen, progesterone and human placental lactogen — during the final weeks or months of pregnancy.

‘The hormones estrogen and progesterone increase during pregnancy and play a large part in readying a woman’s body for breastfeeding,’ Petersen told Daily Mail Online. ‘Without them, it can be difficult for moms to supply milk.’

Kim will have to rely on a successful replication of this process if she wants to produce milk for her third child born via surrogate.

To achieve this, doctors will prescribe hormone therapy, such as supplemental estrogen and progesterone, herbs or medications to trick their body into thinking that she’s pregnant.

The hormone therapy, which can last at least six months, should cease about eight weeks before the woman is expected to start breastfeeding and start using a breast pump in order to build milk supply, according to lactation consultant Dr Elizabeth LaFleur of Mayo Clinic.

‘This encourages the production and release of prolactin,’ Dr LaFleur wrote.

For successful lactation, women should do this increasingly over the next few weeks until such time the baby is born.

‘At first, pump for five minutes three times a day. Work up to pumping for 10 minutes every four hours, including at least once during the night,’ Dr LaFleur says. ‘Then increase pumping time to 15 to 20 minutes every two to three hours. Continue the routine until the baby arrives.’