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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Storm Newton

Why do breastfeeding mothers leak milk when babies cry? Study of mice may give us the answer

A mechanism in the brain could explain why some breastfeeding mothers leak milk when their baby cries and why they continue to care for infants even when tired.

It is a long-established observation that a mother’s breasts may leak milk when they hear a crying baby, with previous studies finding that calls for milk – and not suckling itself – lead to a surge of the feel-good hormone oxytocin in the brain.

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