Thanks Catherine for your great explanation of the prolactin receptors and
how they work. If I understood correctly, the receptors are on the cells
that synthesize milk, the alveoli? So, when breast involution occurs, eithe
after weaning, or as baby gets to be a toddler and doesn't drink all that
much at breast, do alveoli dissapear, along with their receptors? Is a
multipara starting out with the same nuber of receptors as a primip in the
first phase of BF? What about if mom is tandem nursing? Would the amount of
involution that has occured effect how many receptors are left?
And finally, how would this effect how soon mature milk "comes in", and how
soon mom gets to the third stage of BM production. And maybe the occurence
of painful afterpains, or not, depends on how much BF was going on with the
toddler, and thus, how much active alveoli are left or how many prolactin
receptors. Actually, oxytocin receptors seem more relavent to the issue of
after pains. Do you know where these are and how many???

Just really curious

Dalia Abrams

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html