Kathy Leeper writes:''<She is the first I have seen with a full
supply...but there were no "ectopic pores".>

Laurie Wheeler writes: <I have seen several cases of pores on the areola
where colostrum comes out during hand expression, during the first few
days postpartum. I work w/ mostly African American moms, not that this
makes any difference. These mothers did not have any breast surgeries.
Interesting.>

In the article by Montagna that I quoted at length earlier this week in
answer to Catherine Watson-Genna's post, he explained that the character
of the Montgomery glands change according to their location in relation
to their proximity to the nipple and/or their closeness to the outer edge
of the areola. Those in the 2/3 of the areolar space closer to the nipple
are actually separate glandular systems that make real, genuine milk,
complete with their own ducts. They are not connected to any of the ducts
in the ductal system that are draining the rest of the breast and
emerging through the center of the nipple. The further the Montgomery
glands are located from the nipple and the closer to the outer edge of
the areola, the secretion changes more to sebaceous material.

Montagna described in detail the particular areolae that he happened to
be dissecting, which seemed to have patterns of distribution into 3's or
6's or 10, I believe he said. I don't think he necessarily meant that
every areola is exactly that way. (Heaven only knows that not all nipples
are exactly the same!)

The one thing I didn't discover in the article is why some mothers don't
seem to exhibit any, or very few, visible Montgomery glands on their
areolae. Are they there, but so small, or buried so deep that we cannot
see them? Or are they fewer? Or absent? Whatever way it may be, I firmly
believe that what have been called "ectopic pores" in this discussion are
in fact, visible Montgomery glands, and located within the inner 2/3 of
the areola.

Let's all keep looking from here on out and see if this description
matches what we see or not.

Jean
************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html