Non-puerperal induced lactation.

Abstract

The December 1971 issue of Pediatrics has just become available here and we are writing to amplify the letter by Dr. Robert Cohen (p. 997) Breast Feeding Without Pregnancy, and the note by the Associate Editor. Briefly, the phenomenon sometimes termed non-puerperal induced has been, and, in some areas, still is, a well-recognized, culturally accepted emergency method of feeding young babies whose mothers have died in childbirth. There is considerable literature in anthropological and historical records1,2 and the writers have personally observed induced lactation in various parts of the world, including the Yoruba community of Nigeria, when samples of breast milk from such women were found to show a low normal protein content.3