Kris says in response to my post:


<<If it were not true that just stimulating the breasts without actually
removing milk "told" the breasts to make more, how would a mom relactate
after weaning or induce a milk supply for an adopted baby?  When a mom is
starting with "nothing" as in an adoptive situation, we all know that milk
will eventually be produced just by pumping and/or the baby suckling at the
breast with a supplementer.  I couldn't explain the physiology behind it,
but in the beginning, no milk is being removed, yet done often enough, milk
appears.>>


Excellent point Kris -- you are absolutely right.  I wasn't even thinking
about adoptive or relactating moms...

And I'd love to know what the mechanism is behind that -- how does it work?
We know it does....

Yet we also know that in order to make more milk you have to take more out of
the breast.  The less you take out, the less you make.

Let's look at this from a different perspective:  if we want a mom to
increase her supply, and she doesn't want to pump/express, and the baby is a lovely,
cooperative one who will nurse as long as you want as often as you want
(hahahaha), then -- is it more effective to breastfeed for (hypothetically we are
going to use that awful old-fashioned graph that depicts 90% of the milk being
consumed in the first 10 minutes -- I have it on a slide) -- oh, every 4 hours
for 20 minutes/side or every 2 hours for 10 minutes/side?  Or would
breastfeeding every 3 hours for 15 minutes/side do the trick?  And we'll say mom's
storage capacity doesn't figure into this.

We'd probably learn more by pumping using the same pump at the same setting
each time, I would guess.

Just trying to figure this out.  And perhaps the approach that Karen
suggested -- pump whenever it is convenient for you -- try to get in 4 a day plus
breastfeeding -- or whatever it is, rather than telling her "do it after every
feed" or half way between feeds, or some other rule -- would be best.

Jan

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