The inability to lactate

[Guest guest]

I'm lactating just fine: despite several factors which are commonly cited as

potential problems for lactation. I'm so used to hearing the mantra: if you

can't breastfeed, you didn't try. But I've also heard from women that have

literally tried everything, including herbs and medications designed to

increase milk supply, to no avail. I dunno about the rest of the lactating

women on this board, but I can't consume any galactogogues without a

significant boom in milk production.

So that got me thinking...

I've read several pieces of literature that describe how the mammary glands

(and the breast's fat tissue) begin to develop at the onset of puberty and

how important this development is to future lactation abilities. I didn't

think much of that until recently, after watching a program about animals

kept in captivity where a lioness just dried up out of no where... when it

dawned on me that diet may have something to do with it. After all, natives

follow a special traditional diet during that time... And then I got to

thinking about all the estrogen mimics our society loves so much - you know,

the ones causing early puberty?

So now I'm wondering - is it possible the increasing inability to breastfeed

found in America is simply a byproduct of inadequate mammary development

caused by inadequate nutrition during puberty? Or is it possible the

inability to breastfeed is a byproduct of the estrogen mimics which are

triggering puberty more often, which simply don't do the same job as natural

estrogen when it comes to mammary development? If so, we're talking about

invisible deformities that just cannot be corrected until the next

generation goes through puberty... which is a shocking thought to me... but

it would explain this far larger than I imagined subset of women who

deperately tried to breastfeed and just couldn't.

-Lana