Hi, all. Thanks for your responses to the syntocinon substitute question. It took a bit of time to collect all the info, and I still as yet have one unanswered question: if we try the sublingual application of pitocin idea, how much? This story took an interesting twist. A colleague, MFCC(almost)/LC got wind that I was working with this mom, and she called me to ask how it was going; she, too, had dealt on a different level with this mom and had concerns for her. As I described what was going and my intuition about inhibited MER, she agreed strongly with me and then said, "did you ask her about her two other children who don't live with her"? Well, I knew about them from her history, knew their breastfeeding history, but had not explored the question of why they were no longer living with her. So at our next consult shortly thereafter, I asked her to tell me about her other children, and the tears immediately flowed. To make a long story short, she had been the wife of a pastor who cheated twice on her. When she finally refused to put up with the deception and left him, she took the children, but later on he convinced them to live with him instead and told them lies about counselors, counseling, and who was to blame for the breaking up of their family. He successfully alienated the children from her, and now they are exhibiting many problems as they continue to live the lie with their dad, who lives in delusion. She admitted to me that she had a hard time bonding to the baby and that late in pregnancy she developed a fear of this baby, too, leaving her some day. This poor mom was terribly traumatized and had shared her fears and pain only with her new husband and her own mother. Because she and I are both Christians and because she did not have someone else to go to, I prayed with her after her hour of tearfulness, for release from the fears, the pain, and for release of her milk. We saw no difference afterwards in the office, but she told me that later that day her milk "came in", she leaked and dripped all over, and that she had experienced tremendous relief after the sum total of our consult. This is the second time that I have seen psychosomatic inhibition of milk ejection, but the first that I dealt with all the way through personally (my colleage figured out and dealt with the first one-- abortion/guilt & mothering issues). I'd like to say that everything is wonderful now, but it is not. She told me that she knew that she could bring her milk supply back up (baby was 3 wks old when we did this), but she was so overwhelmed by that point with all of the stress to date, an extreme uncomfortableness with nursing in front of most anyone else, and with her impending return to work at 8 wks pp, that she has decided to continue to do bottle & breast and "let nature take its course". We discussed this a bit further, but I had to let go of her and let her know that I was there if she needed me any further. She feels tremendous gratitude for what we accomplished, but this is all she can handle for now. I am glad for her peace of mind, and that at least she knows that her body has not failed her. -Lisa ****************************************************************************** Lisa A. Marasco, IBCLC / [log in to unmask] International Board Certified Lactation Consultant / [log in to unmask] ******************************************************************************