Why does the lactation consultant have to prove that an injection of
progesterone within 12 hours of delivery might cause problems with milk
supply.  Any textbook available will tell you that it is the drop in
placental hormones (including progesterone), which allows the prolactin to
work on the alveolar cells to produce milk.  Let him prove that the
progesterone does no harm, since what he is doing is certainly an
intervention.

Dr. Peter Hartmann in Perth Australia, has done work that suggests that it
is specifically the drop in progesterone specifically which sensitizes the
alveolar cell to the action of prolactin.  I have misplaced his email
address, but Fiona Coombs, who is on Lactnet, probably knows how to get him.

I find this injecting of women with birth control medication most repugnant.
I do not believe that women will go straight home and start doing it,
especially in North America, where doctors inflict their own method of birth
control, the episiotomy.  What's the bloody rush?  Does this doctor think he
will influence the world's population by doing this?

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC