Chanita:  I'm not sure what you've heard about the % of mothers who truly
can't breastfeed, I assume you mean those who have physical inability to
make milk.  There was a lot of debate about this, so you might check the
Archives.  Dr. Neifert's famous (infamous?) 5% appears to have been
derived from her population of patients at the lactation center, so it is
probably grossly exaggerated, since women who seek help at a lactation
center are probably much more likely to be having a problem anyway.
Therefore, her estimate of true lactation insufficiency probably doesn't
apply to the general population.  Dr. Miriam Labbok had once been quoted
in a letter to the Wall Street Journal in 1994 with an estimate closer to
1 in 2000 women, which sounds much more realistic to me.

There probably is some increase these days because we now have to add some
of the women who have had breast reduction, and perhaps with increasing
infertility rates there may be more women who were never pregnant, who can
produce milk to varying degrees.  I have no idea what number this
constitutes, or how it affects the 1 in 2000 figure.  I'm not aware of any
data on this question.

Hope this helps.  Alicia Dermer, MD, IBCLC.