Lactation
Suppression of lactation
No treatment is recommended, see prescribing notes.
Prescribing Notes:
- No treatment is recommended; bromocriptine should not be prescribed.
- Cabergoline can be prescribed in hospital only, to suppress the initiation of lactation in women with a foetal loss after 24 weeks.
History Notes
18/05/2022
East Region Formulary content agreed.
Augmentation of lactation
Non-pharmacological breast-feeding support, including advice from specialists such as Health Visitors and Breastfeeding support teams.
Domperidone
Domperidone 10mg tablets
10mg 3 times a day for 1 week, then review.
Prescribing Notes:
- Domperidone should only be used after non-pharmacological support (assessment of breastfeeding technique/frequency, mechanical expression technique/frequency and active management of breastfeeding) has been inadequate in augmenting breastfeeding.
- The use of domperidone in this indication is ‘off label’, a referral letter containing key relevant information should be sent to GPs for those women who have been discharged from hospital but require domperidone to augment lactation.
- Domperidone must be used in combination with non-pharmacological breastfeeding support and with regular assessment and review at a breastfeeding support clinic.
- For further information in NHS Lothian refer to Breastfeeding: Insufficient supply – RefHelp.
- For further information in NHS Borders and NHS Fife see Using domperidone for low milk supply – SPS - Specialist Pharmacy Service – The first stop for professional medicines advice.
History Notes
31/07/2025
Updates to prescribing information, ERFC May 2025
18/05/2022
East Region Formulary content agreed.
Drugs in breastfeeding
Prescribing Notes:
- The UK Drugs in Lactation Advisory Service (UKDILAS) provides evidenced based safety information on the use of all UK medicines during lactation. The information is available on the Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) website.
- To search for the information you need, enter the name of the drug in the site search box, then select the monograph for that drug. Once in the monograph scroll down to the section ‘Lactation Safety Information’ for a summary of the advice. In this section there are links to useful resources - in some monographs there are question and answer fact-sheets and/or therapeutic group summary information.
- SPS have provided a pictorial guide on how to search UKDILAS service.
History Notes
18/05/2022
East Region Formulary content agreed.