The following is from Bonnie Bedford's website. I doubt the site is still since Bonnie's death due to breast cancer. from Bonnie Bedford's site: http://www.hunter.net/~bedford/br-info.html That Pesky 5% Figure: How Many Women Are Unable to Produce Enough Milk? By Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D. Rachael also mentioned the issue of how many women physiologically are incapable of lactating. The 5% figure was bandied about in the press the summer of 1994. Where did this come from? I don't have the references on this topic here at home, but I can tell you the tale, and you can check it out for yourselves. The Wall Street Journal published an article on July 22 or 23, 1994, which mentioned the 5% figure of modern women who could not produce enough milk for their infants. When questioned, they said they got this figure from Mary Ann Neifert, who runs a breastfeeding clinic in Denver. She deals with women who are already having problems, and of course the vast majority of women have no problems, so she never sees them. She said 5% of her clinic population seem unable to produce enough milk. She also said this was true of the general population, however, and referred inquirers to one of Dana Raphael's books (she has written several on breastfeeding, including "The Tender Gift" and "Only Mothers Know" and I'm not sure which book was cited in this context. Anyway, if you go to Raphael's discussion of this, SHE cites a study in New Zealand that found 5% of mothers in a hospital study couldn't produce enough milk. If you go read the New Zealand hospital study, which was done in the 1950s, it turns out that the study had mothers nursing their newborns for one minute on each side every 4 hours the first day of life, for 2 minutes on each side every 4 hours the second day of life, for 3 minutes on each side every 4 hours the third day of life, and so on. What is amazing is that ANY of these women produced significant amounts of milk, given the infrequency of feeding and the short duration of each feed. And yet 95% were producing at least some milk. The scientific literature shows conclusively that the more often the infant nurses, the greater the mother's milk supply (assuming the baby is latched on properly) AND the higher the fat content of her milk. Michael Woolridge of England has published extensively on this topic, and his research shows that children allowed to nurse on cue regulate their own intake in terms of quantity and fat content to be just what they need. Scheduled feedings and limiting the duration of the child on the breast at a feed are sure-fire ways to reduce milk supply. For a fascinating perspective on the history of the medical profession's love-affair with scheduled feedings, see the article by A.V. Millard in the journal Social Science and Medicine, 31(2):211-221. The title of the article is "The Place of the Clock in Pediatric Advice," and it was published in 1990. Many, many women are told by their pediatricians to nurse only so many times a day, and to limit the duration of the baby's nursing sessions. The baby doesn't remove enough milk, so less and less is made (breast milk production is a demand-driven system) and the baby seems more fussy and fails to gain weight properly. The mother is told by her doctor that "She doesn't have enough milk" and must supplement. The supplements interfere even more with the nursing, and soon the baby is completely weaned. The baby's health is the loser, as is the mother's self-confidence and self-esteem. The winners? The infant formula industry, and, indirectly, the pediatrician, who now gets to treat more ear infections, more allergies, more diarrhea, etc. etc. etc. Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Anthropology Texas A&M University co-editor of "Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives" and specialist in infant feeding and growth e-mail to [log in to unmask] © 1996, 1997 Bonnie Bedford -- Monique Noah 6/97, Melissa 6/23/00 [log in to unmask] The same phrase describes my marriage and my breasts: before the kids, they used to be such a cute couple. Amy Krouse Rosenthall *********************************************** 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