I have been thinking about natural selection also. Natural selection is not "practiced" in the human population to the extent it is in other animal populations. This is good because more people and babies have a chance at life. If nipple or breast shapes are genetic then we would see a wide variety of nipple and breast variations in humans. I am also wondering if breast size has anything to do with lifestyle or hormones. Obesity can cause breasts to be larger especially during puberty and also we are hearing more and more about hormone imbalances in even young girls and I think hormones are a factor in breast size and how much fat is deposited in the breasts during puberty. I don't know, I am just thinking out loud. The reason this is so interesting to me is because I see so many mothers with very large breasts and flat nipples. I have only worked at our hospital for two months, but I have seen a lot of large, rounded breasts accompanied with breastfeeding difficulties. When I surveyed the nurses about what they find most difficult about working with mothers they all wrote the same thing--large breasts and flat nipples. Are flat and inverted nipples more common in large breasts? I too wonder what breasts have looked like throughout history. On those National Geographic shows you see a lot of breasts, but none of them are large or rounded. I realize that large breasted women can successfully breastfeed without problems, but I still wonder about all of the breast variations. So far I have only seen a few mothers with a C cup or smaller. I don't mean to single out large breasts here but that is what I see a lot of and I want to be able to help these mothers. That is all for now. Christine Lichte, LLL leader, CBE, 2003 IBCLC candidate Warrensburg, MO *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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