Just seen on the ILCA 2012 Conference Brochure: 

Plenary: The mechanics of infant feeding
revisited: Fresh ultrasound studies of
breastfeeding and bottle-feeding. Michael
Woolridge, DPhil
 

I will be curious to find out if THIS set of impressions is based on ultrasounds with no commercial backing, and what his conclusions are.

500 years of evidence base exist for the fact that "Vacuum does not pull; other forces push."

Also, fluids follow laws. (Pascal, Venturi, Bernoulli)

And I am quite interested to know at how many weeks postpartum this new research took place. 

Whatever one wishes to call them, the tubings just posterior to the squamo-columnar junction under the nipple have  thick elastic walls around them in the resting breast of the adult human female as evidenced by embryologists, histologists and breast surgeons. 


Could Lactogenesis 1 in the second and third trimester plus the dynamics of suckling and/or pumping in the first 4 weeks postpartum bring about changes in the thickness of these walls by 4 weeks postpartum? This has been my perception while palpating the subareolar tissues of thousands of women in late pregnancy and early postpartum periods (to test nipple protractility and teach them fingertip expression) over the last 5 decades.


Just me and my one-or-two track mind again.


K. Jean Cotterman RNC-E, IBCLC
WIC Volunteer LC      Dayton OH 

Azzopardi JG, Ahmed A, Millis RR. Nomenclature of the Microanatomy of the Breast: Parts Affected in Different Diseases: Normal Structure and Involution, In: Problems in Breast Pathology In: Major Problems in Pathology, Vol. 11 in series, Bennington JL, Ed., W. B. Saunders Co. Ltd., London, 1979

Haagensen CD, Diseases of the Breast, Third Edition 1986 W.B. Saunders Co: West Washington Square, Philadelphia, PA 19105

Montagna W, Macpherson E, Some Neglected Aspects of the Anatomy of Human Breasts, Journ Inv Derm, July 1974, Vol 63;1: p. 10-16.

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