Can I say I agree with everyone on this issue and not have tomatoes
thrown at me? ;-)  First of all, to continue a theme from my last post,
you must always make allowances for individual differences.  On the
issue of stress causing or not causing an inhibition of MER, this still
applies.  I have seen the woman in SCN, under the most stressful
conditions, let down ounces and ounces of milk but I've also talked to
the woman whose job situation was such that she was surrounded only by
the thin walls of her cubicle to pump and so inhibited by what people
might hear, that her milk was backing up and beginning to diminish
because she couldn't get an MER at work!  (BTW, nipple rolling at my
suggestion "almost flooded the pump"!)  Obviously stress affects one
person differently than another and you can't generalize any principle
to everyone.  We all know that.  There is also the matter of degrees of
stress.  I mean something that might send one person quivering to a
closet might be invigorating to someone else!  So, I think stress can
inhibit MER for some people and not others.  I am reading The
Scientification of Love by Michel Odent (which I recommend) and he talks
about the physiologic basis for the inhibition of labor in mammals.  He
talks about the "primitive" or very old parts of the brain that all
mammals, including humans, share like the hypothalamus and the
pituitary, and the highly developed intellectual part called the
neocortex.  Birth works best when we operate from the primitive brain
and can be inhibited by the neocortex (sorry that's a very brief general
synopsis).  This applies, he states, to "any other sexual experience"
which I think can include breastfeeding.  So, there is likely a
physiological basis for thinking this is a valid phenomenon.  This might
explain why the more educated mothers sometimes fail at breastfeeding
and we explain it by saying "they think too much about it".  It also
explains why I, a very modest and inhibited person (in my younger
child-bearing days) took days instead of hours to give birth to my
children!  (Fortunately I didn't know any better than to believe I would
and could breastfeed my children back then!)  So, there, have I
straddled the fence gracefully enough?
Marsha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Marsha Glass RN, BSN, IBCLC~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future
generations as all other earthly causes combined.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~John S. C. Abbot~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~






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