Thanks for the suggestions - Pamela, I think I am gonna move to Zimbabwe,
or perhaps I should just send the Moms there....I get caught up here in the
pump thing - one problem that influences me is rocket propelled hospital
discharge...
I just cannot see most Moms hand expressing for months in this bit of the
world tho I am sure if they had enough dedicated support they might. But,
knowing Mom is going home in 2 days I feel like my only chance to get her
off on the right foot (the right breast?) is to explain and demo pumps etc.
asap, while I have her as a captive audience.
If I find a mom about to be discharged and not pumping it's usually due to
a miscommunication (screw up) and it's v. hard to explain it all to her
with one foot out the door and no pump to take home with her... (As you
might gather most Moms in our hospital do not BF and I have lots of fun
trying to convince NICU Moms to give it a go.) (And Sandy's analogy was
great but if I launched into that most of the Moms here would just look at
me like I was nuts. Actually they look at me like I'm nuts anyway, and all
I say is "Breastmilk is really good for your baby"....)
But seriously, doesn't it make much difference to future supply if they
start pumping on day one or day 4? [one private poster told me you should
ideally start within 24 hours] And is the colostrum just reabsorbed and
replaced by mature milk if you wait till day 4? I suppose I'd better go and
look this up in a text book somehwere...
Anne Merewood