I frequently hear the "Prolactin Receptor Theory" in the paper by De Carvalho et al. (1983) as research that supports the impact of frequent nursing in the early weeks to establish milk supply.  Here's a link to the abstract:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6889034 .  What I find interesting about this oft-quoted paper is that the number of subjects is not really large (44 total) and that while there was a difference seen between the control group (nursing on a schedule every 3-4 hours) and the experimental group (nursing frequently, 10 + - 1.9 times daily) as far as milk intake and weight gain at 14 days, the difference was no longer significant at 35 days.  Nonetheless, I think there are still many reasons to think that frequent breastfeeding in the early days will go a long way in establishing successful breastfeeding.

Ellen


Ellen Rubin, MA, IBCLC, LLLL

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