Breast Feeding, Child Development and Natural Progesterone

A study reported in the British Journal of Psychiatry observed that administering natural progesterone from the middle trimester of pregnancy for relief of the symptoms of toxemia had some unexpected benefits: “A significant improvement in educational performance was demonstrated among children [whose mothers] received progesterone before the sixteenth week following conception; and after giving birth their mothers seemed to have greater success at breastfeeding“.

Dr. Katharina Dalton summarized her 1968 research of 90 children whose mothers received ante-natal progesterone compared with matched controls. She noted that more children of mothers who had received ante-natal progesterone were still being breast-fed at six months; more were standing and walking at one year; and at nine to 10 years of age, more had demonstrated superior performance, compared to the control group, in academic subjects such as verbal reasoning, English, arithmetic and craft work.

Both groups were equally developed in physical education. None of the ante-natal progesterone mothers experienced toxemia during the pregnancy; in the control group, more than half experienced toxemia.

Dr Dalton concluded that natural progesterone cream is not only safe for use during pregnancy, but is is also recommended.

Dr. Dalton, who conducted these studies, first discovered the amazing benefits of natural progesterone through personal experience when she found that her own menstrual migraines disappeared during the last six months of pregnancy. She concluded that the high levels of progesterone during pregnancy might have made the difference.

She then tested the use of natural progesterone on other women and found the same rapid relief of both headache and other symptoms. Noting that if symptoms normally associated with PMS should return at any stage of pregnancy, a resumption of natural progesterone treatment would be indicated, she advises: “You could be wise to arrange prophylactic natural progesterone during pregnancy.”

Dr. Dalton calls morning sickness “a sign that the ovarian progesterone is insufficient and the placenta is not yet secreting enough progesterone.” She says that giving the woman extra progesterone will ease the symptoms.

Says Dr. Ray Peat, “Since natural progesterone has been found to reduce the incidence of birth defects, it would seem reasonable to be sure that your own progesterone has returned to normal before getting pregnant.”