It's been known for several years now that it isn't prolactin that
suppresses ovulation.  There is an ongoing debate about whether it is some
other hormone that varies with nursing frequency or rather "what percentage
of a mother's metabolic energy is going into making milk" that suppresses
ovulation.

There's a pretty good discussion of this in Peter Ellison's book "On Fertile
Ground: A Natural History of Human Reproduction" (2001, Harvard University
Press).

On the other hand, this book has some problems -- so perhaps his discussion
of lactational amenorrhea is not quite all that it might be either.

Kathy Dettwyler
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