I am really enjoying the thread on stress and lactation difficulty.  This is
something I see continually in my practice.  Many of the babies I see are
ill,premature, or injured (I currently am assisting an infant with a facial
palsy ).  I have a client who studies post-concussion syndrome in adults,
and I asked her once if she thought it was possible that infants who had
difficult labors and came out with pointy heads and cephlahematomas could be
experiencing any of the sx  associated with post-concussion syndrome
(sleepy, grouchy, un-coordinated).  She had seen nothing in her lit. but
that only means no one has really studied it.  After all, we've only just
recently (last decade) acknowledged that neonates feel pain.

There is a nice article I haven't seen anyone mention yet in this thread:

Chen D, Nommsen-Rivers L, Dewey K, and Lonnerdal B:  Stress during labor and
delivery and early lactation performance, Am J Clin Nurt  1998, 68:335-44.

"The amount of stress experienced by both the mother and fetus during labor
and delivery varies considerably and is likely to be different in
primiparous and multiparous women."

The authors measured stress hormones and timed on-set of lactogenesis in a
group of 40 women with differing birth exper.  Some findings:  "Milk vol. on
day 5 was lower in women with high exhaustion scores...primiparity, stress
to the mother and fetus during labor and delivery, and elevated cord glucose
concentrations are risk factors for delayed lactogenesis...Birth is a
stressful event and there are significant changes in the hormonal profile
associated with parturition, particularly in the stress-related hormones."

Anyway, this is a very interesting paper and adds a lot to our consideration
of how stress/trauma impacts lactation.

Barbara Wilson-Clay BSEd, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
http://www.lactnews.com

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