Lactation

Lactation in Apple Health records lactation context. Apple's Cycle Tracking interface offers lactation as a factor with a start date and an optional ended date. A saved interval can therefore span an extended period of lactation; it must not automatically be treated as one breastfeeding or pumping session.

Code 0 is an undefined-value marker, not a negative result. This category has no numerical milk-volume measurement. Breast side, pumping versus nursing, and volume should be used only when the source actually supplies and documents those details; they cannot be reconstructed from the marker.

First establish how the source uses the type. Counting long-running Cycle Tracking factors as feeds would produce a misleading session count and duration chart. If a source explicitly records individual sessions, examine its interval semantics and duplicate handling before reporting session frequency.

For factor coverage, reconcile overlapping intervals and revisions rather than simply adding every row's duration. Gaps in the saved history describe missing recorded context, not necessarily cessation of lactation. A source change can also change interval shapes without reflecting a change in feeding behavior.

A verified factor interval can provide context for separately recorded menstrual flow, sleep or activity. A broad factor interval does not identify individual feeds or measure their effect on sleep. The data also cannot establish exclusive breastfeeding, infant nutritional adequacy or lactational contraceptive effectiveness.

The selected database window contained no lactation records. Recorded factor lengths and source differences could not be measured. Lactation is absent from the current PulsHealth sync catalog, so database absence says nothing definitive about what is stored in Apple Health on the phone. This source-based review includes no milk-output or feeding-frequency chart.