Ann Marie
Interesting concept! I had a look at the site.
I've known many OBs to treat, or even prevent postpartum women with
hormones. Usually estrogen patches, which have a disastrous effect
on milk supply. A drug & toxicology professional friend and I wrote
up one of them and had the paper published many years ago. But with
regard to progesterone, intuitively it doesn't make sense that
hoodwinking the body into thinking its pregnant again would NOT have
a negative effect on breastmilk production. After all it's the
sudden withdrawal of progesterone that leads to Lactogenesis II. And
small fragments of retained placenta can inhibit lactation by
continuing to produce progesterone. And I think we all know of
mothers who start taking the mini-pill (various synthetic
progesterones, some of which behave like estrogen in vivo) who may
experience sudden loss of milk supply, watery milk, fussy baby, low
weight gain etc etc and who experience a reversal if they stop taking
the mini-pill.
What I have to wonder, really, is why a common therapy for PPD
involves hormonal treatment of the new mother - as if because she's
female, the cause of PPD must be something hysterical. In my
experience, a lot of PPD is due to an exhausted new mother, receiving
inadequate help, love and support from those around her, and perhaps
being blamed for her new baby being so unsettled, and being urged by
all around her to get back to "normal". Whatever that is in the
early post-partum.....
I may have mentioned this before, and forgive me if I repeat myself,
but one of the most sobering cases of PPD I came across was where I
was called to help with post-partum engorgement and found a
desperately upset mother, crying and raging at everything (except the
baby, interestingly ....). It turned out that her MIL had come to
stay for the big event, and her husband was an important attorney and
needed his rest so he could get up in the morning and go to work
(according to MIL who seemed only interested in protecting her own
"baby"). So the new mother and baby were sleeping on the couch every
night while hubby enjoyed the comfort of the marital bed, and no-one
seemed to be able to see that the mother was exhausted, worried about
the baby's intake (latching difficulty) and generally next to herself
with stress and distress. After I finished the consult I phoned the
GP to see if he could do anything (like talk some sense into this
really stupid husband ....) Instead the GP was monumentally
unconcerned and more or less said, oh yes, he'd been treating my
client for Depression for quite a while, so he wasn't surprised that
it was now worse after the birth .... Mom got Amitriptyline and baby
got formula, and another one bit the dust.
Back to your client, Ann Marie, I'd be very cautious about the
likelihood of breastfeeding success if she was to accept progesterone
therapy, no matter how "natural".
I'd be interested to hear others' opinions.
Pamela Morrison IBCLC
Rustington, England (formerly Harare, Zimbabwe).
------------------------------------------------------
At 05:00 18/02/2008, you wrote:
>Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 15:39:31 -0800
>From: Ray & Ann Marie <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: natural progesterone injections for PPD
>
>I have searched the archives and the internet for evidence that natural
>progesterone injections help OR hinder developing a full milk supply. Does
>anyone here have anything to back up either side?
>Dr. Hilgers at http://www.naprotechnology.com/depression.htm is using
>progesterone injections for PPD s/sx...but I am unable to locate any info
>about its effect on milk supply.
>Thank you.
>
>Ann Marie Henninger
>RN IBCLC
>Sequim WA USA
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