Trying to induce lactation for the purpose of NBE is not a common option among the community. However, many have utilized this in their programs with success.

Before pregnancy, a woman’s breast is rather immature and half-developed. This allows the milk ducts to tunnel deeper into the fat pad of the breast. When pregnancy occurs, prolactin and progesterone act together to mature the breast.¹

Inducing lactation acts in a similar fashion. When one increases prolactin and progesterone, the lobules & alveoli that produce milk will develop and mature.

However, while progesterone helps develop the alveoli, it also prevents the alveoli from actually producing milk. Once a woman gives birth, the loss of the placenta causes progesterone and estrogen levels to tank; and only prolactin remains to influence the alveoli to start producing milk.

Inducing mechanisms

Prolactin

There are a few ways to increase prolactin.

Let’s look at each of those.

Galactagogues are herbs that are known to help lactating women increase milk production. They are often poorly understood, such as their mechanism of action, whether it’s on the breast itself or on the pituitary to produce prolactin.

Domperidone is a dopamine receptor blocker. Dopamine acts on the pituitary gland to suppress prolactin production. As the pituitary produces more prolactin, dopamine levels rise to match. This regulates prolactin in a process called a negative feedback loop.

Domperidone acts by preventing dopamine from attaching to the pituitary, so the pituitary never hears the “stop” signal. Therefore, despite dopamine existing, prolactin levels keep rising. And at the same time, dopamine levels keep rising as they try to stop prolactin. So the end result is both prolactin skyrockets, and dopamine skyrockets in retaliation.

Nipple stimulation suppresses dopamine levels by activating the arcuate nucleus in the hypothalamus. Additionally, nipple stimulation triggers the release of oxytocin, which leads to mild dopamine suppression and relaxation of the muscles in the milk ducts, facilitating milk release.² A person can stimulate the nipples through touch, nipple pumping, or EMS stimulation. Personally, I prefer EMS stimulation.

Sexual contact with Orgasm has been found to release prolactin, to the point where levels increase by 300% and remain elevated until noon the following day.³

Progesterone

Unfortunately, there are fewer ways to increase progesterone.

• Maca (stimulates E2 and P4 production)
• Progesterone cream
• Progesterone suppositories
• Progestin-only birth control

Endogenous progesterone production is difficult due to the fact that high prolactin suppresses progesterone production. As such, usually exogenous progesterone is the preferred way to maintain high levels.

Anti-Prolactin supplements

Vitex is commonly cited to increase progesterone, however it does this by mechanism of suppressing prolactin. Suppressing prolactin would work against your interests.

Saw Palmetto can also be mentioned here. Although it is an anti-androgen, it suppresses prolactin as well.

The Pituitary gland

The pituitary gland builds up it’s store of prolactin over the course of about 2 hours. Upon nipple stimulation, it releases stored prolactin in pulses every five minutes. After about 15~20 minutes of stimulation, the stores will deplete and requires another 2 hours to build up another reservoir of prolactin.

Using Domperidone results in a continuous release of prolactin. Domperidone users following the “The Newman Goldfarb Protocol”—provided below—will usually dose 30mg about 3~4 times a day at 2~4 hour intervals to keep a sustained release. This may not be necessary, as domperidone has a half life of about 7 hours.

Basic strategy for growth

As prolactin and progesterone are both required to build the alveoli, one would want to maintain high levels of both hormones for several months. Lactation shouldn’t occur due to the high progesterone. Again, one problem is that high levels of prolactin will suppress progesterone production. Therefore, supplements such as Maca to stimulate the ovaries, exogenous progesterone, or “mini pill” progestin only birth control would be necessary to maintain both high levels of prolactin and progesterone.

Once one desires to try lactating, they would need to drop the progesterone, and maintain high levels of prolactin. Lactation should start within two weeks.

If one doesn’t fully follow the protocol and allows prolactin to rise without progesterone, then lactation will only be possible with half-developed alveoli – resulting in sub-par milk flow and breast volume.

Community Members

Some notable community members utilize prolactin to develop the breasts to the point of lactation, then cycling off until lactation ceases, and then cycling back on. A user named Alpine Udders has done this without utilizing domperidone nor the Goldfarb protocol above; instead simply using breast pumps and herbal options.⁴ Bluefontaine is another user who doesn’t follow this specific protocol, but regularly employs galactagogues such as Goat’s Rue, Moringa, and Alfalfa in her regimen.