# Can "ironing board" women lactate enough to sustain an infant? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 13, 2005, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ironing-board-women-lactate-enough-to-sustain-an-infant/335347 "2005-12-13T01:21:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ironing-board-women-lactate-enough-to-sustain-an-infant/335347/21 "2005-12-14T14:57:14Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I, ahh, kinda prefer small (natural) breasts for some reason. Anyone else? Yup, me too. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ironing-board-women-lactate-enough-to-sustain-an-infant/335347/22 "2005-12-14T20:36:40Z")
Little ones are great. I prefered them until I met the perfect set issued to Mrs. Butler. She’s got the bigguns, and has no problems feeding the Butlerette (8mo now). As said above, it’s not the size, but the efficiency of the mammary glands they contain. -butler ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ironing-board-women-lactate-enough-to-sustain-an-infant/335347/23 "2005-12-14T23:00:14Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > I don’t think we really know why women develope breasts. One theory is that they are sexually attractive to men, actually simulating her ass. For some reason we needed this stimulation when we went from doggie style to variuos forms of face to face sex. Whoa, whoa… cut out all of the fancy medical jargon and give it to me straight! ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ironing-board-women-lactate-enough-to-sustain-an-infant/335347/24 "2005-12-15T01:09:09Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > If the male appreciation of the female breast is hard-wired due to their similarity to buttocks, how does this explain Chinese foot binding, lip plates for some African women, Burmese neck rings, classical erotic paintings that emphasized a woman’s hips, Victorian fascination for legs and ankles, and for narrow waists, etc.? Going further, I think once we have the ability to modify the shape of the human body (foot binding, modern day breat implants), there is no longer any evolutionary pressure to develope these features. Early humans has no way of making a breast look more like an ass, so the bigger, rounder breated women were the reproducers (we all know the theory here). But when women noticed that men liked small feet, in order to appear more attractive they bound their feet and their female children’s feet (I beleive the neck rings are also done by females to themselves). Because they could do this themselves all women appeared to have small feet, and no evolutionary pressure to make womans feet smaller. I think pointing out the things you did supports the contention that the breast simulates the ass more then it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ironing-board-women-lactate-enough-to-sustain-an-infant/335347/25 "2005-12-16T01:14:53Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > Going further, I think once we have the ability to modify the shape of the human body (foot binding, modern day breat implants), there is no longer any evolutionary pressure to develope these features. Early humans has no way of making a breast look more like an ass, so the bigger, rounder breated women were the reproducers (we all know the theory here). > > But when women noticed that men liked small feet, in order to appear more attractive they bound their feet and their female children’s feet (I beleive the neck rings are also done by females to themselves). Because they could do this themselves all women appeared to have small feet, and no evolutionary pressure to make womans feet smaller. > > I think pointing out the things you did supports the contention that the breast simulates the ass more then it doesn’t. Interesting point. In support of that I tend to think that far more women choose to get breast implants as a personal decision rather than being asked or forced to by a man. Back to lactation: Is there any statistical data that makes any connection between the ability to successfully breast fead to breast size? I get it that some large breasted women can’t successfully breast feed and that many small breasted women can, but does the data skew in one direction? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-ironing-board-women-lactate-enough-to-sustain-an-infant/335347.md?page=1)