Witch's milk

Witch's milk
An old folk term for the milk that commonly flows from the newborn baby's breast or can be expressed from it. This transient phenomenon is due to stimulation of the baby's breasts by the mother's hormones that crossed the placenta during pregnancy. The ability of the baby's breasts to respond in this fashion is a mark of baby's having been born at (or near) full-term; the breasts of a baby whose birth is markedly premature cannot enlarge or respond with witch's milk. The expression "witch's milk" is also applied more broadly to galactorrhea, the spontaneous flow of milk from the nipple at any time other than during nursing. This can be due to "normal" factors such as an unrecognized pregnancy, trauma, surgery, over-exercise or one of a number of drugs (including amphetamine, cimetidine, female hormone replacement therapy, hydroxyzine, methyldopa, nicotine, narcotics, reserpine, antidepressants of the so-called tricyclic type, or verapamil). Or it can be due to "abnormal" factors of a pathologic nature such as cirrhosis of the liver, a false pregnancy (pseudocyesis), renal (kidney) failure, disorders of the spinal cord, or a prolactinoma (a benign pituitary tumor that secretes the hormone prolactin which stimulates milk production).

* * *

milk secreted in the breast of the newborn child; hexenmilch.

Medical dictionary. 2011.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Witch's milk — or neonatal milk is milk secreted from the breasts of some newborn infants. It is the result of influence by the mother s hormones before birth. Witch s milk is only secreted by some infants born at full term, and not by prematurely born infants …   Wikipedia

  • witch's milk — noun Milk secreted from the breasts of newborn babies …   Wiktionary

  • witch's milk — noun see witches milk 2 …   Useful english dictionary

  • Milk, witch's — An old folk term for the milk that commonly flows from the newborn baby s breast or can be expressed from it. This transient phenomenon is due to stimulation of the baby s breasts by the mother s hormones that crossed the placenta during… …   Medical dictionary

  • Milk and Honey (album) — Milk and Honey Studio album by John Lennon and Yoko Ono Released …   Wikipedia

  • milk — 1. A white liquid, containing proteins, sugar, and lipids, secreted by the mammary glands, and designed for the nourishment of the young. SYN: lac (1). 2. Any whitish milky fluid; e.g., the juice of the coconut or a suspension of various metallic …   Medical dictionary

  • witch ladder —    In 1886, during repairs to an old house in Wellington (Somerset), a blocked off roof space was found to contain broomsticks and a length of rope interwoven with goose and rook feathers. The workmen who found it called it a witches ladder , but …   A Dictionary of English folklore

  • witches' milk — noun 1. : mare s tail 2a 2. or witch s milk : secretion from the mammary glands of the newborn of both sexes presumably due to placental permeability to the lactation producing hormones of the mother …   Useful english dictionary

  • Ramsele witch trial — The Ramsele witch trial, which took place in 1634, is one of the few known Swedish witch trials before the great witch mania of 1668 1676. In the year of 1634 a man and several women were put on trial in the city of Ramsele in Ångermanland in… …   Wikipedia

  • White witch — White White (hw[imac]t), a. [Compar. {Whiter} (hw[imac]t [ e]r); superl. {Whitest}.] [OE. whit, AS. hw[imac]t; akin to OFries. and OS. hw[=i]t, D. wit, G. weiss, OHG. w[=i]z, hw[=i]z, Icel. hv[=i]tr, Sw. hvit, Dan. hvid, Goth. hweits, Lith.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”