"I think this is important to consider when looking at this whole issue of
"insufficient glandular tissue"  and not count the mother out if she isn't
Type I or Type II. "

I personally have taken the stand of never counting a mother out even if she
is not producing a single drop.  In the case of my two friends, who both
desperately wanted to breastfeed their babies and are both very smart women,
we never gave up.  They both supplemented all daytime feeds at the breast
(one using donor milk and the other using ABM by her own choice).  They both
were the sole feeders of their babies, just like a breastfeeding mom who
does not separate from her baby is.  The babies were soothed at the breast
through the night.  Both moms took various combinations of herbs; one also
takes Domperidone.  One of the babies is now 14+ months old.  The mom no
longer uses the supplementer (which she nicknamed "the rig") and the toddler
nurses for comfort several times a day.  She's not getting much but...this
baby is now exactly the same as any breastfed baby at 14+ months, isn't she?

Both mothers were able to overcome, at least in part, that awful feeling
that their bodies had failed them and they were able to create their own
scenarios of breastfeeding success.  They took to heart the fact that
breastfeeding, and no doubt to me the benefits associated with it, is about
a lot more than just the milk itself, and did what they could to give their
babies their best start in life.  I am very saddened when I hear of mothers
who are heartbroken by an anatomical or medical situation that precludes
breastfeeding as we expect it to be without the support of someone who might
help them think outside the box about how to tailor their particular
experience.  The mother can make her own choice about the importance of
breastfeeding, but if a mother with no breasts at all were to come to me and
say she wanted to breastfeed her newborn, I'd do whatever I could to help
her maximize whatever she could make, and I'd encourage her to consider the
positive aspects of feeding the baby in a manner consistent with
breastfeeding if that's really what she wanted to do.

--Diana in NY (who admittedly gets very, very emotional in these discussions
because this is one of those things I think is completely unfair about life
-- that there are mothers with all the milk in the world who don't
breastfeed, but these mothers with compromised milk-making situations would
give up their legs in exchange for breastfeeding...)

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