Relief for mothers as hormonal treatment doesn’t affect lactation: Study

Having a hormonal intrauterine device (IUD) implanted immediately after birth does not affect a woman’s ability to lactate and breastfeed, according to a study.

“Early placement of a hormonal IUD is a safe, long-term birth control method that does not negatively affect women who want to breastfeed their baby,” said David Turok, associate professor at University of Utah Health in the US.

Medical practitioners often recommend that mothers delay receiving an IUD for several weeks after delivery to ensure the hormones do not interfere with normal lactation, but until now the approach had remained largely untested.

The new research found that women’s milk did not come in later if they received a hormonal IUD immediately after giving birth compared to women who received the same type of IUD several weeks after delivery.

Eight weeks after delivery, women with IUDs continued to breast feed equally as well as women who did not have the birth control.

The researchers carried out the study by randomising participants into two groups: 132 women received a hormonal IUD within 30 minutes of delivery and 127 women received a hormonal IUD 4 to 12 weeks after delivery.

The one disadvantage to early IUD placement is an increased potential for the device to …read more