To breastfeed your little one is to witness the many miracles your body can do. It’s a never-ending discovery of how your body tries again after a small or big setback, and of how it can endure and overcome.

One powerful example of this quiet strength is relactation.

What is relactation, and how is it a reminder of love that never gives up?

According to World Health Organization (WHO), relactation is resuming or re-establishing breastfeeding, which you will need when:

• your breastfeeding is interrupted, from a few days to a few months or years
• you’re unable to breastfeed because of illness or unavailability
• your child’s health is at risk because of formula feeding

Moreover, WHO identifies relactation as a life-saving act, especially because it recommends breastfeeding up to two years and beyond, and exclusive breastfeeding on the first six months of a child’s life.

Whether you stopped breastfeeding because of choice, circumstance, or need, relactation honors your body’s readiness to breastfeed again. It sees through your unique breastfeeding journey as a mom and validates that the experience is not the same for everyone.

It also underscores that hitting the pause button in breastfeeding is not the same as giving up. It’s reassessing, regaining strength, and recharging, all in the name of giving your better self to your little one whenever you’re ready.

There’s an unmistakable, familiar feeling only a reunion gives, and relactation allows you and your child to deeply immerse in this feeling. It has the power to reconnect you in ways other mother and child activities won’t.

But even without a previous pregnancy or another pregnancy coming, establishing lactation through induced lactation is also possible for you. This makes it possible for you to breastfeed your adopted child should you decide to, but WHO warns that in this case, your milk supply will often be less adequate for exclusive breastfeeding.

In both relactation and induced lactation, your child will need to latch to stimulate milk production. The longer and more frequent your child does this, the more milk is produced. This encourages more and better connection between you and your child, a result of both your efforts combined.

Now, you might be wondering: Is there a difference between breastmilk produced through relactation and one that has been produced since the beginning? The World Health Organization says there’s none, which means that relactation does not affect the quality of expressed milk.

Although colostrum will be absent if you’ve never been pregnant, studies reveal that nutrients are still present in the breastmilk you’ll produce!

Relactation is no different from regular breastfeeding in terms of community building. You will need your village to motivate you and give you support, most especially at times when you feel the weight of the task all over again.

Relactation is a strong reminder to moms that success in terms of breastfeeding is not linear. It will allow you to feel the ups and downs: hope, frustration, joy, and exhaustion, but never to the extent of giving up. It reminds you to try, and to keep trying for your little one.

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This post is sponsored by Natalac, the only lactation enhancer in the country proven effective by clinical studies. Natalac is available in all leading drugstores nationwide.