postmaster respawn....?

im sure there is only one postmaster running on my server but everytime i do
a series of ps ax | grep post..

**1st ps

  510 ?        R      4:25 /usr/bin/postmaster -o -F -i
 1235 ?        S    119:12 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
 1394 ?        S     74:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
 1422 ?        S      1:39 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
26375 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
30626 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
30632 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
32238 ?        R      0:26 /usr/bin/postgres 127.0.0.1 nsadmin openacs SELECT
  443 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
  449 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle

**2nd ps
  510 ?        R      4:26 /usr/bin/postmaster -o -F -i
 1235 ?        S    119:15 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
 1394 ?        S     74:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
 1422 ?        S      1:40 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
30626 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
30632 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
  443 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
  449 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
 1971 ?        R      0:00 /usr/bin/postmaster -o -F -i

**3rd ps
  510 ?        R      4:25 /usr/bin/postmaster -o -F -i
 1235 ?        S    119:12 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
 1394 ?        S     74:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
 1422 ?        S      1:39 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
26375 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
30626 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
30632 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
32238 ?        R      0:30 /usr/bin/postgres 127.0.0.1 nsadmin openacs SELECT
  443 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
  449 ?        S      0:00 /usr/bin/postgres localhost nsadmin openacs idle
  633 ?        Z      0:00 [postmaster <defunct>]


then it cycles again...  hmmm...  can anyone tell me whats happening? does
this hamper my servers efficiency?


thanks...