The combined oral contraceptive pill versus bromocriptine to suppress lactation in puerperium: A randomized double blind study

Abstract

A randomised double blind comparative study of 230 HIV infected mothers who had a normal delivery at 37-42 weeks' gestation were divided into two groups; 116 combined pill users and 114 bromocriptine users to suppress lactation. There were 33 cases (28.5%) of combined pills users and 29 cases (25.4%) of bromocriptine users who had breast engorgement without statistical difference. All of them had mild breast engorgement without any treatment except one case (0.9%) in the bromocriptine group had severe breast engorgement with puerperal fever and needed an analgesic drug. There were no side effects of the drugs. This study showed that combined pills were beneficial to suppress lactation in HIV infected mothers to prevent postnatal mother-to-child transmission because of low risk and low cost.