I delivered a pump to a mom today, 7 days pp. She explained to me that
she has never had much milk with her other 3 children, but wanted to pump
and try with this one, her last.  As I asked a few more questions, it
came out that she has a pituitary tumor. It was discovered a few months
after the birth of her first baby, and she had trans-sphenoidal surgery
where 25% of it was removed.  It is a benign "growth hormone" tumor, and
she was told that she would never have children.  Regardless of that
prediction, she has rolled off three children in 4 years........  All
were born by c-section for failure to progress; she reported that she has
had spontaneous labors but never dilated beyond 3 cm with labors lasting
14-28 hrs and despite pitocin augmentation.

This is not an official case for me yet, I was the first one to tell her
that she may have more options than just pumping and hoping for the best,
and so she is going to discuss this with dad.

IF she contracts with me..........   I'm thinking ahead here.  The
original case for autocrine control theory was based on a pituitary
resection similar to this mom's case.   I figure that prolactin is
probably horrible, and I wonder about oxytocin.  We can do a prolactin
draw to verify the former, but can you test for adequate oxytocin?  If
mom's TSH is okay and other systems okay, is it still reasonable to have
just one or both of these bfg hormones not producing properly?  What else
might we explore?

Hoping to get to "do" this one!  Feedback?

Lisa Marasco, BA, IBCLC