Agalactia

Agalactia (from the Greek a- negative particle, and gala-milk), the complete absence of milk in the breasts of nursing mothers. The opinion of physiologist Bunge (at the end of the 19th century) about a gradually increasing number of women unable to breastfeed due to inherited hypoplasia of the mammary glands is now rejected by authoritative pediatricians and obstetricians (Heubner, Czerny, Finkelstein). Absolute absence of milk is observed as rarely as any deformity: every woman who has given birth produces milk in greater or lesser quantity, but sometimes 48 hours after childbirth it is still not possible to express even a single drop of colostrum from the breast (especially in primiparas). Midwives and even doctors often mistakenly take such cases for agalactia and immediately switch the child to artificial feeding, thereby causing it irreparable harm. Meanwhile, with persistent and regular application of a good sucking child, such mothers gradually develop and the secretion of the mammary gland increases with each passing day. Much more often one has to observe women in whom the mammary glands produce less milk than the child needs (see Hypogalactia).