My personal experience with nursing a toddler through a new pregnancy is that it does cause "contractions" similar to the ones caused by pressure on the belly (like when bending over). I have nursed through two pregnancy's already, both baby's were born between 39 en 40 weeks. Roosje van Gorp LLL leader Maastricht, The Netherlands Nikki Lee wrote: > Dear Friends: > > If nipple stimulation (i.e. endogenous oxytocin release) was enough to > induce labor, then every baby born in the world would be too premature to > survive. > > There was some thought that this might work back in the 80s, and I remember > doing Non-Stress Tests (what a crazy name for such a stressful event!) with > pregnant women who were told to do nipple stimulation to stimulate > contractions. But the practice has been abandoned for labor induction, > because it doesn't work. (The uterus contracts from the moment of > implantation right up to delivery.....the contractions of an NST were not > effective ones, and would not encourage the uterus to open.) > > 30 years ago, women who wanted to breastfeed were told to hand express > newborn milk....with no increase in prematurity. There is at least one > article about it from 1958. > > • > •J Obstet Gynaecol Br Emp. 1958 > •Jun;65(3):448-9. > –“The value of antenatal massage of nipples and expression of colostrum*.” * > (Ingleman-Sundberg) > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > My understanding is that uterine oxytocin receptors don't wake up until the > last 4 weeks of pregnancy...in most women. We'd all be reluctant to suggest > prenatal expression of newborn milk to a woman with a history of premature > labor. There are enough midwives on this list to give opinions here! > > warmly, > *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome