Hello all, I am a pretty small person (5 feet tall, size 10 dress size), physically fit (I'm on active duty in the Army and I have to pass a semi-annual fitness test and weight standard), with huge breasts. Right now I'm in a 36DDD or 34F but that's fairly small compared to the 38H I got up to in the early postpartum days after both of my children. I have the worst time finding bras and once I do find one, it costs a small fortune so all I can buy at one time is one bra. Sports bras are the worst -- I'm a distance runner (I like to get 3-5 miles in several times each week) but even the super-duper sports bras for "large-chested women" don't fit me, and what I ultimately settle for always chafes me to shreds. It's really little wonder that large-breasted women tend toward the overweight, because exercising, really exercising, is practically impossible without a good bra, and a good bra is so hard to find. With regard to breastfeeding, I am one of those mothers whose anatomy allows me to breastfeed my babies while they lie flat on their backs. I do find that I have to support the weight of my breast when my babies are very small (in spite of advice to the contrary from many excellent lactation consultants), and our "ideal latch" would certainly not be good to use as a picture in a text book! As far as my history goes -- my mother has very large breasts, even when she was a smoker(!) and much smaller overall, her breasts were large -- C-cup or bigger. I was not breastfed at all and my mother is a breast cancer survivor (and she did take the birth control pill in the 60's, very scary). My father's mother, and his two sisters, had/have ENORMOUSLY LARGE breasts. We're Maltese (from the island nation of Malta). I went to visit there in 1999 and was amazed to discover that pretty much everyone there was short, strong, and had what we Americans consider to be large breasts...but over there, they don't really think of them as abnormally large, just how breasts are. I had to shop for clothign because my luggage didn't make it when I did, and I giggled with delight at the department store when *my* size (34DD at that time) was hanging right up front in the bra section, not buried deep in a drawer or unavailable altogether like here in the U.S. I haven't ruled out the possibility of breast reduction in the future, but I'd love to find other women for whom breastfeeding has been such an important and significant part of their motherhood journey. I'm not sure, even when my last baby is weaned, I will be able to psychologically handle losing my breasts. If anyone has any resources concerning this topic, I'd be most appreciative. For those who celebrate this weekend, have a very happy Easter. :) --Diana in NY *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html Mail all commands to [log in to unmask] To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or [log in to unmask]) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet or ([log in to unmask]) To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]