First of all- thanks to all of you who responded. Jennifer- your right, we
LC's need to be more familiar with alternative practices. I had thought
that maybe chiropractic or CST intervention might be indicated but having
little experience with both in use with infants I wanted to see what my
peers recommended. Thansk also to those who recommended the Dancer's hold.
We did try this but it wasn't very sucessful. Surprisingly what has gotten
babe to breast at least half the feedings is using a nursing pillow or side
lie position and absolutely avoiding all contact with babes neck/head. If
this babe is permitted to "scooch' himself into a good angle he seems in
less discomfort. Any attempt for mom or me to cradle him in arms seems to
increase the "pop".
 Regarding the ISIS pump- A very large percentage of my mom's here use this
pump. It's cost effective, comfortable and easy to use. surprisingly, even
some of the moms with carpel tunnel have had little problem with it and I
honestly haven't had any complaints about hand fatigue ( which I thought
would be a big draw back) Most of my mom's are working mothers or active
duty soldiers who can face a pretty long seperation time from baby daily
and yet I  only have a occ. mom with production problems ( which seem to
occur more as babe sleeps longer at night for my group)
I encourage most of my military working moms to begin "ghost working
schedules" for pumping during the first weeeks of maternity leave to build
up a good freezer supply. I also recommend they maintain at least a two
week emergency supply in the freezer in case of unexpected seperations.
It's worked really well and we've seen a definate increase in continuation
rates with this group especially.
 In the NICU- only mom's with 35 week and above infants who are beginning
to breastfeed transition to this pump and I still encourage use of the
hospital pumps when they visit if they are not boarding. Yeah- I know, the
recommendations are for hospital grade rentals but the Military insurance
does not cover any breastpump rentals and junior enlisted don't make a lot
of money. It's surprising that one of the largest employers(military)still
fails to address this componant of medical support but we're working on a
change.....someday...fingers crossed...hope...hope..
 I know this is a long post but please permit me one "rant". Did it upset
anyone else out here to recieve the notification from one of the pump
companies re: price fixing for one of their top of the line products PNS?
And that if you sell it for less than what they want, the company will
refuse to sell you any more of that model? I continue to become less and
less impressed by the "attitude" of this company. That notification was
extremely bad PR to me and diminishes my support of their products. Rant,
rant- Thanks
Lisa Jones RN CLE IBCLC

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