To Jean DeLapp,

I have no doubt there will be those who will come up with additional
answers including herbs, cabbage, etc.

But I was thinking in terms of basics. The textbooks say women have 15-20
lobes in each breast. It sounds as if she is one who has 20 - lots of
milk-making tissue.

<She was thinking it is stemming from her being a milk =
donar,>

I think it must be the other way around. Far from her milk donor
experiences CAUSING this, it is no doubt because she was gifted with a
full complement of milk making tissue that she found it so natural to BE
a milk donor! She developed that way starting from her own early
embryologic and fetal periods.

<but I didn't feel it to be that as she temporairily dried up when =
she became pg with this baby.>

From this, I gather that she "wound her supply down" somewhat gradually
between babies. That is, by leaving more and more milk incompletely
removed from the breasts and milk removal not so thorough or so often.

The signal transmitted across the membrane of the milk making cells was
then, "Slow down the manufacturing process, and the enzymes will do what
they are designed to do: Break down the milk components so that they can
be reabsorbed back into the blood stream."

The key to manufacturing milk is the thoroughness of removal, plus the
frequency of that thorough removal. If she could again do the reverse, it
might help.

I read a passage from one of Dr. Jack's publications that some women even
use just one breast in 24 hours, and the other on the opposite 24 hours.
I have often advised mothers to use one breast for all feedings in 4-6,
or even 8-12 hours.

Of course, to arrive at that goal, it is necessary to take things slowly
enough to avoid plugged ducts and mastitis. Perhaps she could start with
4 hours, gradually building up the time in which the same breast is used
and the other, not used to nurse.

So any milk removal, by leakage, hand expression or pump, from the breast
not "due to be nursed during the time period",  would need to be only
what is absolutely necessary for comfort, so that the milk in the ducts
is kept moving slowly enough that the back pressure in the alveoli is
starting to send more and more of the right signals to the milk making
cells.

At least, if she understood this concept, it might help her to avoid the
temptation to remove so much milk so frequently for her comfort.

If she could "redefine" just how much comfort she absolutely needs, and
see the remaining fullness as a necessary signal to the alveoli, perhaps
it would hasten the process of reducing her supply, no matter what else
she decides to do.

Keep us posted.

Jean
**************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA

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