Hi, Ginna Wall again, this time responding to the discussion about
postpartum hemorrhage and its effect on milk production. There is a rare
syndrome called Sheehan's Syndrome, in which a severe postpartum
hemorrhage, causing hypotensive shock, results in blood being shunting
away from the anterior pituitary gland. When this happens, there can be a
temporary or permanent hypopituitarism, and the first sign is failure of
the milk to come in. I've seen it once (I THINK; diagnosis was not
confirmed and the patient was lost to follow-up) in fifteen years of
working in a high-risk perinatal referral center.
Not too common!