Dear Lacnetters,

Before I go on no mail (i.e. when the contractions start, for good this
time!) I'd like to thank those who gave all the suggestion to help "my"
bfeeding mother with the oversupply / mastitis problem. I discussed all of
them in detail with her over the last two months. She phoned me yesterday to
say that all (i.e. the bf) was going as it should be and never realised that
it could be so good! (this is her 6th child). Her daughter is now 9 weeks
and she has not felt a blocked milk ducts or had any breast problems for 3
weeks now. In the beginning she would express milk after every feed to
prevent blocked ducts and mastitis. I can hear you all groan that this only
contributes to the problem! - but she was so scared of the mastitis due to
her previous experience. However, she has over a periode of about four/five
weeks she very gradually built down milk expresion, using warm showers to
relieve any blocked ducts in combination with sage tinture. She also used
ibuprofen in the first weeks whenever she felt a bout of mastitis coming on
but has not had to take any antibiotics this time. She now swears by
ibuprofen and said it really helped her keep ahead of any inflammation.
She also started mensturating (spelling?) two weeks ago. I though that this
was quite soon (i.e. 7 weeks) but we came to the conclusion that in her case
it was quite a natural way to keep her oversupply tendancies in check. She
saw a  temporary dip in production before her period. Now her milk
production is back to it's usual self - but under control!

What is also interesting is that when she was expressing milk after every
feed she would drink the excess milk herself. We are now wondering if this
could have helped prevent or reduce the chances of inflammation and
mastitis? A sort of self-immunisation?

Your posts on whales and dolphins "breastfeeding" were also interesting.
When there's more time I think I'm going to read up on the topic of how
other mammals feed their young.


Lastly, the oxytocin thread is interesting:

Recent research out of UCLA shows that women under stress release oxytocin,
>and it leads them to form bonds of caring and friendship with those around
>them, in stark contrast to stress leading to a "fight or flight" response
in
>men.

This is interesting from a personnal point of view. I find that when in a
large group of women - as happens on our bf schooling days - I get several
let-down relfexes, especially when we are together in the large hall. During
the last schooling day I was pregnant and still bf (although my son was not
with me) so that wasn't really suprising. But what suprised me about 6 weeks
ago was that I found myself in a very stressful situation - the cremation of
my father-in-law - having many let-down reflexes. At this time my son had
weaned himself (he's nearly three). I really wonder whether I would
experience a let-down when not pregnant or lactating.

yours

Sara Bernard
The Netherlands

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