>OK, I have sat here a long time thinking about whether to
>post this or no, but I can't just let this go by..
I don't think that my points disagree with the research you've posted much at all, actually.
>Milk is not the same all the time - even in cows the
>composition of milk changes over time. (See chart at bottom
>of page
>http://www.delaval.com/Dairy_Knowled...mary_Gland.htm)
> The fat and protein content changes. Anyone who has pumped
>on a regular basis can show you this - the milk I pump in the
>at different times has different amounts of fat - it is
>obvious just looking at the separated milk. Does BM change
>instantly? No, but it does change throughout the day and over
>periods of weeks and months. Yes it's based on the needs of
>the baby. There are many studies showing that BM naturally
>becomes less fatty as the baby gets older and the milk
>produced by mothers of preemies is different than that of
>full-term infants.
Exactly - it is a system based on time - it is not instant, and it is not independent. A breast does not know that the baby is going to be extra thirsty or need more fat on any particular day. However, when the weather is hot, and the mother is drinking a lot of water, the breast will respond to the mother's cues, and produce accordingly. If the baby is also drinking more from thirst, that is a cue. But it's not independently happening. The two elements of milk production, stage of lactation and mother's nutrition, work in sync.
>In cows, yes - they have a milk or teat cistern, which humans
>don't.
No, humans don't have a teat cistern, but even in cows, the teat cistern doesn't fill up until milking has begun. Before the cistern fills up, let-down has to happen. And it's the same hormones causing let-down in humans and cows. And I for one know that when my let down happened, that wasn't when all the milk was produced. It was pouring out from boobs hard to the touch. When I was done pumping (or BF, for that matter), I was soft again.
>Do a search in pubmed to find out who has been milking women -
>there are plenty of research articles out there.
I did a quick search looking for info on foremilk and hindmilk production. I didn't find anything that said hindmilk is produced as the breast is emptying, only that it appears after the foremilk in any given BF session or BM sample. If there is one, I didn't know which it was - and I tried various articles to see the sampling methods.
>
>Here is an overview article:
>
>http://www.pennhealth.com/health_inf...ncy/000115.htm
Neat article - I enjoyed comparing it to the one about cows from De Laval. But my take on it is that it draws attention to how similar the two processes are, not how different they are.
>
>If I have time next week I'll try to track down some
>references.
I'd love to see more - I've been thinking about this subject for a long time, and now that TTC is on the horizon, I need to educate myself.
>You are confusing producing for a pump with feeding the
>offspring. I would bet that a good portion of those cows that
>"can't produce" for the pump could feed their calves.
This is one I feel very strongly about. Cows are animals. They are bred for their dairy ability - their milk production. In most herds, a cow will last only a few years as a milk producer before its time is up. My family farm did not work that way. We kept cows for as long as they were happy and healthy, and it was very rare that we would get a cow that couldn't produce. After all - this is what they are bred for. However, there were times when there was no milk. A trickle, a drizzle, nothing more. We did not get rid of that cow, like many farms would, we would put the cow with the calf, we would keep the cow through another lactation and give it a chance. We would milk by hand throughout the day, hoping that something would work. My very favorite cow ever, Delilah, my animal whom I showed at the fair, who won several awards for her perfect dairy composition, never gave more than a few pounds of milk at a time. Most cows would easily produce at least 30lbs at a milking. My parents felt bad that my cow did so badly, and kept her for years, and nothing ever upped her production. The only daughter she ever had, Daisy, is still at the farm and still a high producer.
>I'm not going to say every single woman can BF, but I see far
>too often where the normal newborn evening fussies is taken as
>a sign of "not enough milk". And there are plenty of women
>who cannot pump a single ounce but breastfeed their babies
>just fine.
I agree completely. But the pressure many women put on themselves to get BF going, and the pressure they get from elsewhere, doesn't do anyone any good. Putting pressure on a woman to produce, and making them feel guilty when they are unable to, is mean-spirited and unsupportive, whether they are trying to BF at all or trying to pump. BF, pumping, and milking cows have some major things in common, and the importance of relaxation is one of them. This is why I focused my OP on pumping - that's what I have seen the most of with the cows. If that helps anyone, that's awesome.
>and we should all spit up and rechew our food,
>since it's all about stomachs, right?
Stomachs are entirely different - if cows were omnivores instead of herbivores, I might we willing to go here, but alas, they are not :)