Say a nursing mother was stranded on her own with no means of sustenance. How long could she survive living off her own breast milk?
Is it possible for a women who’s not nursing to palpate her boobies and trick them into producing milk?
Just, y’know, wondering… :rolleyes:
Well… if a nursing mother were stranded with no means of sustenance, she’d stop lactating, or else start losing body weight.
In fact, she’d probably die quicker if she were drinking her breast milk because there’s an energy cost in converting body tissue to milk. She’d be losing out on energy.
Sorry, I can’t help with the second part though.
Thats provided they are already producing milk isnt it? He is asking about forcing a woman not naturaly producing milk to begin producing milk.
And the woman’s body would quickly stop producing milk if she were stranded with out any supplys. But if I had to think about it, She would probly be better off not drinking her own milk, as it would take more energy to change the protein she has into milk than it would just to use the protein as it is.
I believe it is possible for non-nursing females to be stimulated into producing milk, but I may be wrong; I’ll search for a definitive answer.
Thankee, Mangetout of the Shires.
I’m a girlie, by the way, ImmortalBlade. I was actually thinking about what would happen if I personally ever got stranded without food and water.
But I also think that the idea of a woman surviving on breastmilk would be a cool motif in a novel, doncha think? Kind of like that Stephen King story of that guy cannibalising himself.
Accpording the the La Leche League, the answer to #2 is “yes” for most women.
Hey, there was the Grapes of Wrath.
This isn’t exactly the same, but I was watching a documentry on something similar. I don’t remember how it got started but a female dog had come to think that some puppies were her babies (actually their’s a slight chace they weren’t even puppies, coulda been kittens even, anyway…) she started protecting them like a mother and doing all that motherly stuff. Very soon, she got so attached, that even though she hadn’t been prenent, she began producing milk for them.