Lactation inhibition: (re) visiting the literature

Abstract

This is a qualitative study type.  Its objective is to identify knowledge produced and propagated in brazilian and international newspapers concerning lactation inhibition.  A detailed search was carried out in the existing literature of the MEDLINE, LILACS, and SciELO databases, a direct search through the main nursing newspapers published between 1995 and 2008 as well as some textbooks.  Ten articles were selected and later catalogued and submitted to categorization.  Beyond that, specific references have been researched and current recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) and also the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MS) have been revisited.  This included technical norms and regulations.  After analyzing the articles, the following four categories surrounding the topic were extracted: Maternal indications for nursing inhibition; neonatal indications for nursing inhibition; pharmacological methods for nursing inhibition and non-pharmacological methods for nursing inhibition. The results lead to the conclusion that although the techniques and indications for lactation inhibition are relevant for nursing care, wet-nurses and newborns; there is a gap in scientific production concerning the topic as well as controversies among the adopted normative protocols.