Sometimes deductive logic can get us in trouble.  I suspect it's not
as simple as Christine suggests. While oxytocin does play a role in
female organism, it does so in tandem with other factors and chemical
signals.  We don't know if orgasm-released oxytocin has the same
effect on the uterus than milk let-down oxytocin.  Certainly,
research on other hormones, such as estrogen, shows us that the
impact of a hormone can be mitigated or potentiated by the presence
of other chemical signals, by whether or not the hormone is bound to
a blood protein or is traveling through the bloodstream in its free,
unbound state, and by the pathway through which it is metabolized by
liver enzymes.

I did choose to wean my 2 year old during my last trimester because
nursing her triggered such intense Braxton Hicks contractions that I
could scarcely breathe or walk.  (She started nursing again after her
brother was born, as you all know from a previous post of mine.)
Orgasms and nipple stimulation by my husband had no such effect.

Remember that milk let-down oxytocin is demonstrated to make the
uterus contract, probably an evolutionary mechanism for decreasing
blood loss after childbirth.  Orgasm-released oxytocin has no
demonstrated function but is thought by some to induce REVERSE
contractions in the uterus to move the sperm upstream to the egg.
(Other researchers dispute this hypothesis.)

The body is amazing in the ways it can use the same chemical
substance for very different ends.  Thus, in the absence of more
data, I'd be careful before drawing conclusions based on logic.  I'd
put more weight on observational evidence here.


warmly,

Sandra Steingraber


>NO references needed just some logic.
Is he also recommending no intercourse because you are high risk?  If he is
then yes then continuing to breastfeed may increase your chances of a
miscarriage or preterm labor.

>If he is not recomending abstinence from intercourse,  then is he saying
that you can have intercourse but whatever you do "Don't have an orgasm! "
And  don't let your husband even TOUCH your breasts or nipples!

>Of course the doctor is not saying these ludricrous things but sadly he or
she will recommend the other ludricrous thing--"weaning on the alter of
ignorance."

>Don't you think that if you can have an orgasm and some husbandly nipple
stimulation that a woman can have some nipple stimulation by her nursing
toddler as well!?

>Oxytocin is Oxytocin and heck sometimes it doesn't even work to induce labor!


Christine Betzold NP IBCLC  (www.starfireinternational.net/breastfed)

--
--

Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor
Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors
110 Rice Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853
[log in to unmask]
www.steingraber.com

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