Study	Reason for exclusion
Booker 1970	This study focused on the suppression of lactation in women who did not intend to breastfeed.
Filteau 1999	This study was examining interventions to prevent breast engorgement. Women in 3 villages were assigned 3 different treatments.
Garry 1956	This study focused on an intervention for "drying up breasts" in women who did not intend to breastfeed.
King 1958	This study focused on an intervention to suppress lactation in women who did not intend to breastfeed.
Nikodem 1993	This study included 120 women on postnatal wards of a Johannesburg hospital, South Africa. Women were recruited 72 hrs after delivery. Women in the intervention group received cabbage leaves to their breasts versus routine care (˝breast exercises˝) in the control group. The study was excluded as only approximately half of the sample perceived that they had symptoms of breast engorgement at baseline assessment. Cabbage leaves were therefore used as an intervention to prevent, as well as to treat, engorgement. Separate figures were not available for those women that had engorgement at the outset and were treated for symptoms. Results of this study suggested that women in the intervention group were more likely than those in the usual care group to be exclusively breastfeeding at 6 weeks (76% versus 58%).
Phillips 1975	This study only included women who had chosen not to breastfeed.
Roser 1966	It was not clear whether this study was an RCT. This study focused on an intervention to suppress lactation in women who did not intend to breastfeed; the treatment was commenced during labour, before the onset of any symptoms of breast engorgement.
Ryan 1962	In this study women that were breastfeeding were excluded.The study focused on an intervention to suppress lactation in women who did not intend to breastfeed.
Stenchever 1962	This study focused on an intervention to suppress lactation in women who did not intend to breastfeed.

hrs: hours
 RCT: randomised controlled trial