Yes we do have numerous references to Sarah Palin breastfeeding and the fact that she was photographed with Trig in a nursing sling is certainly an argument in her favor in this matter. However, I have not seen a single statement from anyone who has actually been physically present when she fed him.
Furthermore, as a lactation consultant I know that breastfeeding Down's babies is almost always MUCH more difficult than feeding a normal newborn. They tend to have poor muscle tone and require a lot more patience and effort to feed. In fact on several occasions among my own clients, women who had successfully nursed previous children made the decision to pump breastmilk and simply bottle feed it to their Down's infants, because they felt the feeding process was so frustrating for both them and the infants that it was not a net benefit. I have also worked with a couple of women who did eventually breastfeed successfully, but it took a lot of time and effort in the first weeks. I have never worked with a mother who simply nursed a Down's infant spontaneously with no problems.
The point of this is we have concrete reports of Sarah Palin in her office in Anchorage (almost an hour from her home in Wasilla) on the Monday after Trig's birth, and photos of her giving a speech the next day. This has never rung true to me knowing that the third to fourth day is the day that the milk really comes in, your breasts feel like hot rocks, often your baby still doesn't really have the "hang" of nursing (to say nothing of the fact that this baby was Down's)... not a day I would have wanted to put on a business suit and give a speech!
No, there are no pills you can take to "start breastfeeding." It is possible to re-lactate, but it is not an easy process, and requires many months of prep and pumping to stimulate the breasts before the adopted baby arrives. There's no way Sarah Palin could have pulled something like this off without her staff knowing that she was doing it.
Regarding Bristol looking "way pregnant" at SNL. I have suggested the possibility since the beginning of this blog that Bristol may well be pregnant, just not as pregnant as has been claimed. If she is Trig's mother and became pregnant around the first of June, she would have been 22-23 weeks pregnant the night of the SNL show. This is not too early to look pretty pregnant with a second pregnancy. The one quick look that we got of her that same day did not show me someone who is "huge" by any means.
I find it odd that no photos of the family arriving at the show were put up anywhere, either by the news media or just folks who had cameras with them. Her appearance was big news and I would have thought the arrival would have been photographed. I am going to try to confirm with SNL/NBC on Monday if Bristol was there and if there are any photos available. It has been posted elsewhere that Bristol was not at the show, but I can't find where I saw that originally.
