> 3) Third idea prenatal: Have mom do nipple stimulation and see if it
>causes uterine contractions, ala non-stress testing...
>
>There was a period of time in my hospital, probably five-eight years =
>ago, where we tried to use nipple stimulation to induce labor. It might =
>stimulate contractions strong enough for NSTs, but for labor it was      =
>not a reliable agent.

Someone else posted that the amount of oxytocin for labor is "hundreds of
times" greater than what is required for lactation.  I am assuming that
if we can trigger just a small contraction by such stimulation, that
there would be some proof that oxytocin is at least present.

The real question, probably, is that which you asked: How much oxytocin
is required/released for orgasm, labor, milk ejection?  OR, is it the
amount of oxytocin that matters or is it the number of receptors that
matters or is it the sensitivity of the receptors that matters, or any
combination of the above? Or the responsiveness of the target muscle?

-Lisa