Lisa writes:
<< Is it merely that we have learned to thwart
 natural selection? I don't know, but I am suspicious that we have some
 unidentified pathologies that are increasing the rate of hormonal imbalances
 and thus also increasing the rate of lactation failure.

 There has been a dramatic increase in the rate of infertility over the past
 few decades-- what held true for humanity in the past no longer always holds
 true today. >>
This may have been said, since I am a few digests behind, but, we are the
first generation(s) to really be thwarting natural reproduction cycles on
such a massive scale . A whole cohort of women are now living  who were never
breastfed, and did not get the hormone shut-off cues of human milk and  are
therefore menstruating earlier, and most women are delaying childbirth til
much later ( most women where I live are in their 30s to mid 40s as first
-time moms), plus severely limiting the number of conceptions and births and
breastfeeding years. I cannot imagine this does not affect a woman's overall
fertility. Teens, although not culturally timing things right or emotionally
ready perhaps rarely seem to have trouble conceiving...
Judy LeVan Fram, Brooklyn, NY

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