Is the amount of milk a woman can produce correlated with how often she feeds?

Milk production is not always correlated with feeding frequency. Milk synthesis rates differ significantly between breasts and between feedings. However, there is a strong correlation between the total milk withdrawn in a 24-hour period and the total milk produced during that time. Infant demand can be efficiently met due to milk synthesis. The breast reacts to how much it empties during a feeding, and this reaction connects the need for milk from the baby and the supply of it from the mother. Daly suggested that the breast detects the infant's requirement by counting how much of the breast is emptied.

For instance, milk synthesis will be low if there is a lot of milk still in the breast to prevent engorgement; on the other hand, synthesis will be high to restore the milk supply if the breast is completely empty. Although the precise processes governing milk supply and demand are unclear, they appear to be connected to a protein known as feedback inhibitor of lactation (FIL). The active whey protein FIL prevents milk secretion. Regardless of how much of each component there is in the milk, this protein inhibits them all equally. Therefore, it appears that this protein only affects milk quantity and not milk composition.

References

Brown, J. E., 2016. Nutrition Through the Life Cycle. In: J. E. Brown, ed. Nutrition Through the Life Cycle. United States of America : s.n., pp. 172.