At a conference yesterday, we speculated on the rate of true mammary gland
insufficiency.  Since lactation success is fundamental to survival, we
wondered what the "failure rate" is for other essential organs:  liver,
heart, kidneys, pancreas.

Is there a failure rate that tends to be fairly constant for these other
organs?  If so, it seems logical that lactational insufficiency occurs at
about the same rate.  Anyone know?  What we *were* pretty sure of was that
the failure rate for other essential organs isn't nearly as high as 1
percent!  ("Failure", I assume, would be failure before reproduction;
evolution doesn't care if your liver gives out after you've procreated :-)
)

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY