Table 6.

Perceived effectiveness and safety: naturopaths’ own “lactation tincture” with a combination of herbal ingredients.

Participants	Perceived Effectiveness by User	Adverse Effects Observed
BW 4	Effective, Onset of effect: 4–5 days	Maple-syrupy smell on the body
	Indicators: Infant’s perceived satisfaction and feeding behaviour, increased milk ingested based on baby-weighing method before and after each feed, shorter feeding session
	“I still don’t have huge milk supply, but at least I have a milk supply.” “We weighed her, initially the weight was something like 20 g difference, and then after that it got to about 40, 50, 60 g difference. The screaming stopped! She wasn’t getting enough food before, I was getting trouble before sleep, lots of crying and screaming before that. As soon as I started this course of action, my milk increased, she slept better, less screaming, she was getting enough food. Yes, so I wasn’t up until 6am in the morning trying to get her to sleep, put it that way!”
BW 5	Effective, Onset of effect: 1–2 days	Delayed return of menstrual cycle, woman believed that it is due to goat’s rue based on her reading
	Indicators: Infant’s perceived satisfaction and feeding behaviour, increased volume of milk supply through supply line
	“So for example she might be getting, you know, 5 or 10 mL from me, and 120 mL from the supplement, and then 2 weeks later when I did the milk studies again, she was getting 60 mL from me. Yes. 2 weeks later, and it was 60 mL and sometimes it was up to 90 mL from the breast!” “That definitely helped. I don’t think I would still be able to be breastfeeding if it wasn’t for the herbs. Or, actually, I probably will still be breastfeeding because XXX won’t take a bottle, ever, has never ever taken a bottle. But I haven’t used… I haven’t had to supplement any milk since she was 7 months old. And I think if I wasn’t using the herbs, I would still have to be supplementing.”
BW 8	Effective, Onset of effect: Within 24 h	Liquorice-like smell from pores on body, sweat and urine
	Indicators: Breast engorgement, infant’s perceived satisfaction and feeding behaviour, shorter feeding session
	“I remember the next morning I woke up, I could just feel immediately that my breasts were really hard and full, and that was like that for a few days, so definitely increase very quickly. I could feel engorged. I know initially the first time I took it I was leaking milk and it was like that for a couple of days. I would say easily 25% increase.” “It made the feeding smoother. Definitely did have an effect on how she is feeding, she was feeding better. Duration of feeding would have been shorter because she was getting milk, more actively feeding throughout the whole time.”
BW 9	Effectiveness observed or perceived by user: Unable to judge, Onset of effect: Only slight effect after at least 1 week	None observed
	“To tell the truth with my supply it didn’t make a huge amount of difference, but I think it did support it slightly.”
BW 16	Effective, Onset of effect: 1–2 days	“Sweeter” breast milk
	Indicators: Breast engorgement, infant’s perceived satisfaction and feeding behaviour, increased volume of milk
	“I just feel that third time round feeding, my baby is four months old and normally your breasts have settled down and you can’t tell unless it is right before a feed at that four hour mark or whatever, you have a very full breasts, and at the end of the day, they tend to be less full, they felt less full. To me, this time they feel full, there’s something always in there. So I don’t know how to explain that, just feel that there’s always got milk…”
BW 17	Unable to judge, believed there’s benefit, so will continue to use, Onset of effect: 3 days	Occasional headaches, mild diarrhoea, slight maple-syrupy smell on body and in breast milk
	Indicators: Breast engorgement, infant’s perceived satisfaction, modest increase in volume of milk expressed
	“I can feel my breasts are fuller first of all, and when I express I get a lot more milk. I can see that the baby, because normally before taking it, when I know my milk supply is a bit low, she might need both breasts on a feed. And with this, she would only take one breast for a feed. So there’s definitely sufficient milk in one breast. So that’s how I know my milk supply has gone up again.” “I just feel that the breasts are fuller before a feed…”
BW 20	Effective, Onset of effect: Immediate effect, after 1 or 2 days	Slight body odour
	Indicators: Breast engorgement, perceived infant’s satisfaction and feeding behaviour, increase in number of wet nappies
	“I could tell because I could feel that they were so full, and I had to breastfeed to relieve the feeling. Also, I think baby was going through a growth spurt at that time, and I was surprise that I had enough milk to feed her, so I was very happy, and I think she is happy too.”