Can palm wine induce new mums to produce breast milk?
Can palm wine induce new mums to produce breast milk?
It can be frustrating for new mothers when they are not able to lactate immediately or express enough milk to breastfeed their newborns.
This can lead some new mums to lean on their mothers, grandmothers or friends for foolproof ways of inducing lactation. Most often, older women are seen as carriers of ancient wisdom that would always be dependable proof.
pap. They will enhance lactation, she said.
Another professor of food science, Gabriel Okafor agreed that palm wine may have some properties that made it a solution preferred over the years. He however expressed concern over the uncertainty of the quantity of it that could pose harm to an infant
“Traditionally women use it and it works for them. It stimulates breastmilk flow and helps in so many other ways for the new born. For the alcoholic content, it depends on the quantity being consumed but there hasn’t been practical research to confirm the truth about it,” Okafor added
In 2019, some Nigerian researchers performed a study on some rats to understand the effect of palm wine on lactation.
The research titled, ‘Effect of Palm Wine Administration on the Histology of the Mammary Glands of Postpartum Female Albino Wistar Rats’ and suggested that fresh palm wine increased the quantity of milk produced by some lactating lab rats.
One of the researchers and a lecturer at Cross River State University, James Ikpa speaking on the result of the research, said that it was observed during the study that moderate intake of fresh palm wine promoted breast milk production and also the quality of the breast milk in the rats used for the research.”
He however clarified that the research is purely scientific, not clinical explaining he said, “We have tested it on only rats so far hence the conclusion you see there but what is supposed to be obtainable is that we go to higher animals.”
But a former head of Nutrition services with Ondo state, James Oloyede in an earlier interview with The PUNCH stated that palm wine does not stimulate lactation in women expressing worry about the alcohol content and how it may affect the new baby.
Oloyede explained that “The alcohol content of palm wine, which is far greater than that of beer, can flow through breastmilk to the baby and alcohol is unfit for babies.”
Oloyede listed anxiety, stress, overworking, poor positioning and attachment, scheduled feeding, and long separation of the mother from the child as factors that can distort the flow of breast milk from a nursing mother
A good psychological state, adequate and healthy diets and good nutrition can help a mother’s breastmilk flow easily, he said.
“Rather than taking alcohol at all, it is advised for such mothers to drink water or pap to stay hydrated, a condition that facilitates the flow of breastmilk,” he added
Also lending his voice to the concerns about palm wine consumption by breastfeeding moms, a child and public health physician, Rotimi Adesanya in an article stated that “While large amounts of alcohol in breast milk can have a sedative effect on the babies, it is more likely to make the babies agitated and disrupt their sleep patterns. When a nursing mother takes it, it gets into the breast milk and the baby sleeps and is unable to suck. Alcohol inhibits a mother’s let-down (the release of milk to the nipple). Studies have shown that babies take around 20 per cent less milk if there is alcohol present, so they’ll need to feed more often. Some infants have been known to go on ‘nursing strike’, probably because of the altered taste of alcohol in the milk.”
While palm wine has historical and anecdotal support for inducing lactation, experts caution parents of the practice because of the effect it could have on the child thereby urging parents to consider alcohol-free methods of assisting lactation during the breastfeeding phase.
