Hi Frank, and everyone else - just to let everyone know that Novartis still
makes Syntocinon nasal spray which is a prescription drug here in Norway,
with the exact composition as given in Frank's post.  BUT the dosage is one
squirt in ONE nostril just before offering the breast or expressing milk.  A
single squirt of the nozzle delivers 4 international units of oxytocin,
which is forty percent of what many women are routinely given as a bolus in
third stage of labor, or following delivery of the placenta at cesarean
section.  Since oxytocin has a half life in the body of less than 3 minutes,
the potential to harm the baby is so close to zero as to be negligible.
Besides, it isn't bad for them anyway.
The current price for a 5 ml nasal spray bottle is under 90 Norwegian
crowns, or about 13 dollars US.  Wish there was a legal way for me to export
it.  We don't often use it but for mothers who need to start pumping and
have a hard time letting down their milk to the pump, it helps, and it seems
to increase volumes taken by the baby in cases of babies with impaired suck
where they are dependent on more active delivery of milk by the breast.

If the woman uses it in both nostrils every time, she uses it up twice as
fast and doesn't get any more effect than if she simply sprays it in one,
and then she can alternate sides to avoid the irritation of the mucosa which
some women experience.

Cheers
Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway, where I don't think I have ever, not once, seen a
problem with MER which I would attribute to a stressful life - but we have
**serious** maternity leave too. :-)

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