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