Joy - thank you for your brilliant synopsis on how milk is synthesized, and the rate of synthesis and the total amount - and how pumping can be better than the baby if the baby is not taking much, etc. etc. Peter Hartmann's work has certainly exploded more than a few myths, and I use what he told us when he visited here all the time. He said that one mother could have produced and stored 750 ml of breastmilk in her breasts at any one time, so her baby would only have needed to breastfeed once in 24 hours. Other mothers might have to breastfeed 20 times in 24 hours in order for their babies to "get enough". I find that mothers themselves are fascinated with this information, and relieved. It all "fits", and it all makes such sense. Still on milk synthesis, someone was talking recently about a pumping mom noticing a reduction in the amount of milk obtained at 2 weeks, 6 weeks etc. It occurred to me that these apparent drops in milk production could account for the "growth spurts" which we usually attribute to the baby, i e they are mother-driven, not baby-related. Thoughts, anyone? Pamela Morrison IBCLC, Zimbabwe