A brief disclaimer: I do occasional tech writing/editing for Medela and occasionally supply them with teaching photos. However I don't depend on occasional income from them for my living. My occassional contract work with them has never kept me from saying what I think about their products, as anyone knows who has listened to my complaints about the re-naming of their nipple shields, my doubts about the wide-spread usefulness of feeding tube devices, or my constant harrassments of both Medela and Hollister to offer more size options in terms of shields and pump flanges. That said, I'd like to say something about the marketing of items for cleansing pumps (both externally with the wipes and internally with the microwave sterilizer bags). Please re-read the excellent section in the current Riordan and Auerbach for a good description of the kind of pathogenic contamination found on the external surfaces of hospital breast pumps (and evidence of this as a source of illness in populations of exposed infants). I am often shocked that infection control completely seems to ignore these surfaces in hospt. units where people are sharing pumps. Also affected would be work sites with shared rental grade pumps. While a can of spray Cavicide or Lysol and some paper towels would be equally effective and cheaper, pre-packaged wipes, if available in those environments, would at least serve to remind people to wipe off those surfaces. A better and less environmentally stressful way to package them would be in pop-up dispensers so that the can could sit by the pump and people could pull up a sheet of pre-moistened towelette and swab the pump and the switches. Sterilizing of pump parts is certainly not necessary for everyday use in populations of women pumping for full term, healthy infants. For parents of prematures, running back and forth to the hospt. all day, perhaps microwave sterilization bags are merely one more way to cut some corners and protect them from melting pump parts. I can see them as having limited but reasonable usefulness. Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC Austin Lactation Associates LactNews Press www.lactnews.com *********************************************** 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(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html