On 13 August, Gonneke wrote:
> I think that as long as we do not know more about why exactly milk production is suppressed during lactation it might not be wise to try and overrule this natural way of things. While prolonged lactation during pregnancy is possible and rather frequently practiced in western society (well, in some subculture groups st least), it seems not to be the way it was intended in the blueprint of human reproduction

    Although Gonneke wrote in response to correspondence on use of herbs during pregnancy, I'd like to contribute some information from a different perspective, and a different aspect of milk icnrease during pregnancy.
   It isn't generally known that it may be possible to increase milk yield substantially during a pregnancy, e.g. in an emergency situation.  I had to do so when 2-3 months pregnant with my second child and still breastfeeding my firstborn.  She was receiving two large cups of cow's milk (about 10 ozs each, or 250 ml, i.e. a total of about 500 ml) and solids, as well as breastmilk. Her father bogged the car on a lonely rural road (a dirt road), and it was about 16 hours before we got a lift back to town.  The water we carried in the back of the car was for the radiator, and not suitable for infant use, and we had no means to boil it, and no other food as it was not the stormy season and we hadn't expected this small rain shower.  I put my daughter to the breast constantly, about hourly.  She never became dehydrated and was her usual alert and happy self.
   At the time, I thought it was no big deal to increase my supply, as I'd relactated a few months earlier for this same baby.  It was not until several years later that I realised I'd done something unusual.  Someone at an NMAA meeting (now ABA) asked me about my recount of this experience in Successful Breastfeeding (now out of print) - as she knew my children she pointed out that I would have been pregnant at the time.  She thought this quite remarkable.  To me, it was just something I'd done because it needed to be done.
   One case doesn't prove a general pattern, but it does prove that substantially increasing breastmilk yield during pregnancy is indeed *possible*, at least in some circumstances.  Nature is wonderful, providing survival techniques even where many humans think them "impossible".
   This case history has been published.  It is in the NALC Newsletter (can't remember the date) and includes the fact that I was pregnant.  It is also in all seven editions of Successful Breastfeeding (the Australian one), but the fact of the pregnancy isn't mentioned.
   Cheers,
         Virginia
         in Brisbane

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