>Someone asked why it is that there is over-production of milk in the first
>week or so after delivery.  I read somewhere that Nature doesn't know that
>you didn't have triplets, but maybe it is to provide for just such an
>eventuality (an injury to the breast(s)) and to absolutely ensure that the
>food-source for the baby will be adequate.
>
>Pamela Morrison IBCLC, Zimbabwe


This is quite likely, Pamela. The body demonstrates this ability to
compensate in other areas. As I understand it (I may be wrong here)
you can live with only half a kidney (ie we have four times as much
capacity as really needed just to survive) and I think it is
something like a ninth or tenth of your liver capacity is enough to
live on. So it doesn't surprise me that the potential *capacity* of
the breast is several times what it needs to be for one baby. Nature
(or evolution, if you want to think of it this way) designed us to
*survive* through various scenarios!

I often talk to mums about the fact that lactation is turned on 'full
bore' by hormones in the early weeks, and that it gradually switches
over to local control of supply in each breast according to how much
milk is being taken from them.
******************************************************************
Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
******************************************************************

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