Successful sustained lactation following postpartum tubal ligation.

This study was undertaken to see whether tubal ligation performed within days postpartum, and associated with a delay in the initiation of breastfeeding, exerts a disruptive influence on successfully establishing lactation among the rural population of northern Thailand. Lactational performance of 12 rural northern Thai mothers was not affected by the delay in reunion of mothers with their babies as a result of postpartum tubal sterilization procedure when compared with a group of 8 other healthy mothers and babies. The volume of breast milk transferred, frequency of breastfeeding and the total feeding time spent on the breast were similar on days 15, 45, 90, 180 and 360 postpartum. This finding suggests that the pattern of intense breastfeeding activity as practiced by this group of mothers has a stronger influence on prolonged and successful lactation than early contact in the immediate postpartum period.

Lack of effect of oral contraceptive use on the pharmacokinetics of quinine.

The pharmacokinetics of quinine after a single 600 mg oral dose of quinine sulphate were studied in seven female subjects who used oral contraceptives and in seven age-matched female controls who did not. There were no significant differences (P greater than 0.05) in the maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) and the time of peak concentration (tmax) between the subjects who used oral contraceptives (Cmax = 5.3 +/- 1.0 (s.d.) mg l-1; tmax = 1.4 +/- 0.7 h) and the control subjects (Cmax = 5.6 +/- 0.9 mg l-1; tmax = 2.1 +/- 0.9 h). The mean elimination half-life of quinine in the oral contraceptives user group (12.5 +/- 1.9 h) was similar (P greater than 0.05) to that in the control group (11.8 +/- 2.7 h). The oral clearance of quinine in the oral contraceptive user group was 0.133 +/- 0.055 l h-1 kg-1 (range 0.073-0.233) and was not significantly different (P greater than 0.05) from that observed in the control group (0.125 +/- 0.025 l h-1 kg-1, range 0.075-0.148).