Hi Everybody:
   This is from page 134 in Gabrielle Palmer's wonderful book The Politics of
Breastfeeding....."Judith Waterford.....in 1831, she was written
up.....celebrated her 81st birthday by demonstrating that she could still
squeeze nice, sweet milk from her left breast. She was a wet nurse for 50
years. At age 75, she admitted sorrowfully that she could not have managed to
breastfeed effectively more than one infant at a time. She fed 6 children of
her own, eight nurslings, and many children of friends and neighbors. In her
prime she produced two quarts of milk a day."
   I would guess, that as people are so variable, that there are those of us
who can make milk for longer than others, just as we make different amounts of
milk from each other. And some folks do get worn out, just as do other body
parts...such as joints and patience. Just another invidual, maybe genetic,
variation? Most of us can make milk easily for one baby, and there are others
that could easily make milk for their baby and nurse the neighborhood. Think
of those laws from Great Britain and West Virginia that forbade a woman to
wet-nurse more than 6-7 infants per day. What does Kathy Dettwyler have to say
on this? Warmly, Nikki