Toby, Marie and others,

Thank you to Toby for pointing me in the direction of her source of the
action of cabbage leaves. I have found both the reference in Topics in
Breastfeeding and the original in Talkabout (this latter one is a journal
restricted in circulation to NMAA Breastfeeding Counsellors). Sister Merle
Lees had been researching the topic after hearing of its use in 1986 at a
Breastfeeding Seminar. (I remember it being used very successfully for my
engorgement with my firstborn in 1984 in Perth, Western Australia.) Sister
Lees stated that it "is a very old treatment, having been used in England
as far back as 25 years ago" ie before her writing this in 1988. So this is
possibly how it got to Australia, perhaps via an English migrant midwife.
Toby's quote on how it supposedly works did indeed come from her article.
Lees did not give any reference to her statement. In actual fact, there are
references to the use of cabbage leaves much longer ago than 30 odd years.
eg a 1898 book which was featured in Time Was ... section of JHL in 1994.
It seems that in those days they weren't concerned with *how* things
worked, only that they did!

I know this still doesn't really answer Marie's original question of
vasoconstriction vs vasodilation, but at least it clarifies where the
explanation came from.

Joy Anderson IBCLC, NMAA Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia
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