Hi Helen,

Sounds like your client wants to use the Newman-Goldfarb protocol for
induced lactation. Others I'm sure will discuss legalities etc but I'll have
a go at answering your questions about side effects and effectiveness.

The most common problem that I have heard from women is bleeding whilst they
are on the birth control pills, it can be reasonably severe (some women
continue on the protocol while bleeding, others stop because if it). Some
also experience weight gain, moodiness and there is of course the fairly
remote chance of blood clot (some women take asprin while on it) associated
again with with birth control pills. Can't tell you the proportions of
these, many women have no problems but those would be the main ones to be
aware of.

The protocol works on basically the same ideas that other hormonal protocols
for inducing lactation do- simulating some of the hormonal changes
associated with pregnancy and birth.
There are some pretty impressive claims made about this protocol (actually
there are several versions of it- regular, accelerated and post-menopausal)
but I do not believe that it lives up to them all. My personal opinion (at
this stage) is that the regular protocol may well be very helpful to women
who have never been pregnant, for women who have previously been pregnant I
am not yet convinced that it has benefit, from what I have seen of the
accelerated protocol it makes little or no difference to any women. I
believe that the protocol can have a negative impact if it is used in cases
where the mum already has her baby with her (biological or adopted child)
and goes on the protocol since lactation is suppressed whilst the birth
control pills are being taken. Women only a few months post weaning a bio
baby have been encouraged to use it and it is my opinion that this is not
appropriate. The thing that the protocol has done is raise women's awareness
and confidence in their ability to produce milk. This is a great thing but I
sometimes think that their faith is somewhat misplaced (ie in the drugs
rather than in their body's ability to produce milk). There are women who
say that they tried (for eg) pumping and domperidone alone and it didin't
work but then used the accelerated protocol and it did work but find that
when they were pumping it was only twice a day and then with the protocol
(which includes what I think is a pretty appropriate pumping schedule) they
started producing milk in the way you would expect with just the pumping
(when the protocol works well what you see is milk being produced pretty
quickly after stopping the birth control pills).

There is yet to be anything (peer reviewed) published on the rates of
success of the protocols. The chief protagonist of the protocols is very
confident of it's superiority over all other ways of relactating/inducing
lactation and I personally find it difficult to discerne the reality from
the hard sell.

You can go to the following BB to find women who have used the protocol
http://www.fourfriends.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php

You may wish to talk to Darillyn Starr about this also. She has been around
a lot longer than I in the world or relactation/induced lactation and has
seen a fair bit in that time
  [log in to unmask]

Karleen Gribble
Australia

> I am inquiring about the new protocol using birth control pills and
> domperidone to induce lactation. I checked the archives to see what
> information was on this new protocol, since I had not read Lactnet with
> this information.

 Does anyone know any problems involved with this protocol?
> Statistics on success rate, problems, etc? Legal concerns?
> Is domperidone FDA approved?  Most or all of the local physicians are not
> familiar with this protocol.
> I am going to see some of the local physicians (Family practice, OB-GYN)
> to discuss this program with them and I want to be loaded with information
> with questions they may ask
> Thanks loads in advance.

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