Jean writes:

<< The newer research that "milk removal drives supply" was at my first
 hearing, "magic thinking" to me.

 It was only after I heard talks and read enough research for me to
 understand a little more about what happens at the cellular level that I,
 as a lactation professional could accept it and begin to explain it in
 simple terms to my clients.  >>

Now this prompts me to ask a question I have been sitting on for a long time,
because it seemed simple to me; but I can't figure it out yet.

My understanding of how "milk removal drives supply" is that we believe there
to be an inhibiting factor in the milk:  an emptier breast secretes milk
faster, a fuller one secretes milk slower.    That means that nursing more at
3pm, say, ought to make you more milk by 5pm.

But one of the principles of gradual weaning, which I and most of us have
experienced personally and clinically, is that it is possible to cut out,
say, the 3pm feeding today, with the result that tomorrow the breast will be
soft and [relatively] empty at 3pm but still full at the 5pm feeding!

Now why should that be?   How, or why, should the breasts "remember" until
tomorrow what time of day we want the milk to be in at??  It doesn't seem to
fit the theory about how milk secretion is stimulated.  Does anyone know the
mechanism here?   Jean?  Cathy?   I am puzzled.

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