Kathy, what you are saying makes sense and it really doesn't contradict what I
said. You state when you are going to be "on" or at least let moms know that
emergency service is not (necessarily) what you are about.

As for charging more for nights and weekends, we did thru Sharon's office, but I
didn't for the moms I saw outside of her business. I don't know. The reality of
the LC business is that the problems don't always manefest themselves according
to an 8-5 schedule. I spoze that's true for drs as well, although there are a
lot of relatively minor, easily corrected or treated problems that wouldn't wait
at least till morning for the average dr. If a baby will not eat, then waiting
until the morning may be a little late. And then again (I can play devil's
advocate, too!) Many bf "emergencies" can be helped enough to get a mom through
the night. Perhaps those aren't really emergencies then. But they may be to the
moms.

Oh dear--I am rambling, aren't I? <g>

As for the pump thing, fortunately, I had the signed rental form from these
people that says that they are responsible for the pump until I receive it.
Medela was great on this one and fixed at least my end with little hassle. I am
making sure that I tell moms specifically not to return the pump unless they
call first and hand it either to me or my hubby. If they dropped it off here,
the dogs would use it for a giant chew toy....

Do you and your colleagues trade off times that you are on or do you take things
geographically? We used to have an elaborate plan we made every 2-4 weeks of who
was on and who was backup, trying to mesh 3 mothers' schedules around our
families, other job commitments, etc. It worked well, though, except that the
hospital had this nasty habit of calling late in the afternoon to tell us about
a mom we needed to see that day because the dr had written an order that
morning.... And then we'd get there only to find that the baby had just been
fed, stuck, circumcised, or any other mood altering activity and they'd wonder
why we couldn't get the baby to feed. We finally convinced them that they really
ought to get some of the moms whose babies were refusing to nurse for (I don't
remember the time period) to pump to stimulate the breasts and to collect any
milk so if they had to be fed something it could be mom's milk.

My brain seems to be stuck in idle (spinning, but not going anywhere!) so I
guess I better go fix supper!

Melissa