Becky wrote < And as far as I can
 tell, having colostrum has nothing to do with later milk production. >>

And Denise wrote <Colostrum comes, then in a few days the endocrine (hormonal)
system kicks in followed in a few weeks by the autocrine sytem (milk
removal/stimulation)....  Your moms are not following up the colostrum
production with homonal maintainance.>

This is what I have seen too when mothers have turned out to have lower than
normal breastmilk production in spite of everything (frequent nursing,
in-between pumping, medication to enhance supply etc.). However, I have
worked with two mothers who have subsequently produced absolutely *no*
breastmilk whatsoever, and have produced *no* colostrum either (one had
literally a "glisten" when the breast was expressed, the other was
absolutely "dry").  No reason that we could find, each one highly motivated
to breastfeed, heart-breaking.  I guess just another variation that we could
see?

Pamela, Zimbabwe



Denise Breheny, RN, IBCLC
Fayetteville, NC