I am working with a mom who is inducing lactation in anticipation of a
fall/winter adoption.  She has expressed discharge that she describes as
sticky green and hard black.  I checked the archives and found some
encouraging notes about this from October and November 1996 from Maureen
Minchin and C. Ione Sims.  These posts indicated that standing breast fluid
could be white, orange, green, or black, depending on various influences,
such as smoking in the mother (black).  They also quoted Dr. Diane Jones,
breast surgeon, as saying that if you have to squeeze out the discharge
(i.e., it's not running all over your clothes) it's unlikely to be
dangerous.  Also, Ms. Minchin made the interesting point that this could
certainly help explain why smokers have higher rates of breast cancer
(yecch--imagine that stuff sitting in there!) and that induced lactation
could be good for smokers!  Incidentally, this mom smoked until last week.

Here is my question.  Does anyone have written documentation of any sort to
support this?  None of the LCs, LLL people, or medical personnel to whom I
have spoken around here has ever heard of this.  I anticipate that when the
mom consults her doctor the doctor will not have heard of it either, and in
all likelihood won't be the least bit familiar with induced lactation;
documentation of this in a book or research article would be helpful.  Any
leads you could provide would be most appreciated.

Ann Marie Lindquist
LLL Leader in Massachusetts

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