Helen,
I don't have the answer to your question but I do have a related question
and that is, how long does it take for the breast to involute completely?
There is currently advice floating around to women who have prematurely
weaned and are wishing to relactate that if it has been more than 2 months
since a woman weaned she is back to square one and so should take oestrogen
and progesterone for a month or so in order to "simulate pregnancy" (of
course during this time the hormones will suppress milk production) because
otherwise it will take a long time pumping, baby to the breast etc to get
any milk happening. I don't think that this is reasonable advice to put it
mildly.

I suspect that the answers to both our questions may depend on a lot of
factors such as the previous breastfeeding history, the length of time
breastfeeding before weaning (in your case would be 0 I guess) as well as
variability inherent in the woman. When I read Virginia Thorley's case study
of a woman who breastfed 3 weeks, weaned for 2.5 months and then relactated
to be completely breastfeeding 1 week later (working from memory on the
details here so I hope they are correct)  can't believe that the breast had
"shut down" after 2 months.

Can anyone help my with my question too?

Karleen Gribble
Australia
(who could also express drops 6 years after weaning before I relactated)


> "Recent studies of infant feeding in Botswana, reported at the Barcelona =
> HIV/AIDS conference 2002, confronted the possibility that women who =
> planned to formula feed exclusively and were in that study arm might =
> give some breastfeeds due to various social pressures (and of course the =
> baby's urging.) =20
> It was anticipated that they might under-report any breastfeeding, =
> knowing that it deviated from what the researchers wanted. =20
> So at each monthly visit from 2 to 6 months, hand expression was used to =
> see if the breasts of the mothers, many of them multiparae who had =
> breastfed before, were producing milk. =20

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