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In most species, lactation is a sign that the female has been pregnant at some point in her life, although in humans and goats, it can happen without pregnancy. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Nearly every species of mammal has teats ; except for monotremes , egg-laying mammals, which instead release milk through ducts in the abdomen.
This is called induced lactation, while someone who has lactated before and restarts is said to relactate. This can be done by regularly sucking on the nipples (several times a day), massaging and squeezing the female breasts, or with additional help from temporary use of milk-inducing drugs, such as the dopamine antagonist Domperidone.
A galactagogue, or galactogogue (from Greek: γάλα [γαλακτ-], milk, + ἀγωγός, leading), also known as a lactation inducer or milk booster, is a substance that promotes lactation in humans and other animals. [1] [2] It may be synthetic, plant-derived, or endogenous. They may be used to induce lactation and to treat low milk supply.
Induced lactation, also called adoptive lactation, is the process of starting breastfeeding in a woman who did not give birth. [178] This usually requires the adoptive mother to take hormones and other drugs to stimulate breast development and promote milk production.
For example, she may have a chronic or acute illness, and either the illness itself, or the treatment for it, reduces or stops her milk. This absence of lactation may be temporary or permanent. There was a greater need for wet nurses when the rates of infant abandonment and maternal death, during and shortly after childbirth, were high.
The term "male lactation" is not used in human medicine. It has been used in popular literature, such as Louise Erdrich's The Antelope Wife, to describe the phenomenon of male galactorrhea, which is a human condition unrelated to childbirth or nursing. Newborn babies of both sexes can occasionally produce milk.
Inducing labour after 34 weeks and before 37 weeks in women with hypertensive disorders (pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, pregnancy-induced hypertension) may lead to better outcomes for the woman but does not improve or worsen outcomes for the baby. [23] More research is needed to produce more certain results. [23]
Overall, there are many factors including frequency of nursing, mother's age, parity, and introduction of supplemental foods into the infant's diet among others which can influence return of fecundity following pregnancy and childbirth and thus the contraceptive benefits of lactational amenorrhea are not always reliable but are evident and ...