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Subject:
From:
Valerie Mcclain <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 29 Jul 1999 15:07:51 -0700
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The reality seems to be that some women produce enough breastmilk for 3
or 4 babies. In a given breastfeeding population, what percentage is
that? This is not sarcasm, I really would like to know.  I believe that
overproduction does not make sense--biological sense.  Many
environmental scientists believe that many of our new
products--plastics, pesticides, etc. either mimic estrogen or suppress
estrogen production in the human body.  DDT is a known mimic of estrogen
causing reproductive problems in all kinds of animals, including humans.
Is it possible that during pregnancy a woman who is over-exposed to many
chemicals might get more estrogen than the norm?  Might that stimulate a
larger ductule system. And what about the hormones that the dairy
industry uses to have dairy cows produce enormous quantities of milk.
For those women who drink that milk might that increase that particular
woman's milk producing capacity.  I know...pure speculation.  But I
cannot believe that mother nature would be so wasteful in having women
produce so much.  Changing the discussion a little, I read that in many
primitive cultures babies were held by their mothers constantly, nursed
every 15 minutes for a few minutes at a time.  This shocked the
anthropologists who were studying these communities.  In those kind of
cultures it would be a matter of safety that infants were constantly
carried.  And of course an infant that is constantly carried by its
mother is bound to nurse quite often. So maybe our modern standard of
nursing often-every 2 hours to a primitive community would be a joke.
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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