Suckling sends neural feedback to the hypothalamus which responds by releasing the hormone, oxytocin, from the posterior pituitary gland. oxytocin, informally dubbed "the love hormone", promotes both maternal bonding and stimulation of smooth muscle-type contraction in the mammary glands. these contractions compress the milk-filled ducts to expel their contents through the only available opening, the nipple. oxytocin is responsible for milk release, but which hormone stimulates milk production?

it provides an alternative energy pathway for the reaction to proceed.

a catalyst is a substance that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction but is not consumed during the course of the reaction.

catalysts increase the rate of reaction without being used up. they do this by lowering the activation energy needed. with a catalyst, more collisions result in a reaction, so the rate of reaction increases. different reactions need different catalysts.

a catalyst works by providing an alternative reaction pathway to the reaction product. the rate of the reaction is increased as this alternative route has a lower activation energy than the reaction route not mediated by the catalyst.