I would suggest to the mother that she say to her baby's nurse: "Do not begin any bottle feedings until I have spoken to the neonatologist. Please have him/her call me right away. If ordered, you may do gavage feedings. " Then mom could speak to the neo about her desires to breastfeed. She could share baby's respiratory s/s and his feeding behaviors. She could say she is familiar with reserach and nicus that use gavage/bf instead of bottles. She could ask that they try this for a few days. If she is very available to the baby, she could be there to do lots of practice bf and STS. She *might* also say to the doctor that they could start bottle later (give in a little) if it becomes apparent after a few days that it is needed (is it ever realy needed?). Not sure how sick the baby is, but may improve in just a few days. Make sure mom initiates and continues milk production with an aggressive program of regular milk expression and using an effective pump. In my experience, many neos don't talk directly with the parents much. They are quite busy with large nurseries and sick babies. However, if the parents are pro-active, the neo will likely listen and write orders as such. The mom should also try to establish a good rapport with the nurse, ask for a primary nurse to be the one to mostly care for her baby if possible. Hope she is successful. It is her baby. Laurie Wheeler, IBCLC, MN, RN n.e. Mississippi, s.e. USA *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html