Dear Roberta, How lucky you are to work in such a setting. At least one of the large hospitals is the L.A. area ( I am profoundly aware of this hospital because many of their new moms filter in to my practice for help or a pump rental) will not even allow a preemie to try bfing until they have been *nippled*. This of course means they go from tube feeding to bottle & nipple feeding. And then IF they can do that alright they can then be ALLOWED to try at the breast. Well ---- ahem ----- guess what happens? Count your blessings! Yaffa \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ Yaffa Stark, MA, IBCLC Los Angeles, Calif., USA "We must identify and reduce barriers which keep women from beginning or continuing to breastfeed their infants." C. Everett Koop, M.D., ScD. Former Surgeon General ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////